American graphic designer, art director, and author George Lois was born on June 26, 1931, in New York, New York. Although he initially received a scholarship to play basketball, he ended up attending Pratt Institute where he only studied for a year before being drafted to fight in the Korean War. After the war, Lois finally started his career in design, where he worked at CBS in the advertising and promotional department.
George Lois is best known for the total of 92 covers he designed for Esquire magazine over the course of ten years, from 1962-1972. However, other notable developments in his career include being recruited by Fred Papert and Julian Koenig to form the Papert Koenig Lois ad agency in 1960. Also known as PKL, this agency was known to be the first ad agency to ever go public.
Later, in 1968, Lois worked on a project for Braniff International Airways, where he created the famous “When You Got It, Flaunt It” campaign, resulting in a great increase in business. Over the course of his career, Lois also worked on various marketing and advertising projects for companies like MTV, Jiffy Lube, Tommy Hilfiger, Xerox, Aunt Jemima, USA Today, and ESPN.
References: http://www.georgelois.com/biography.html https://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/george-lois https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lois https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/graphic-design/articles/2012/august/23/george-lois-on-the-secrets-behind-a-great-cover/ https://www.eamesoffice.com/blog/george-lois-and-the-esquire-covers-and-an-eames-670/