I've just discovered (literally, on my suit's bookcase) a book called "Kiss & Sell". It is not only full of great crit of real-world press and poster work, but its also peppered with useful quotes from everyone from Lao Tzu to Bill Bernbach. I was about to strip-mine it for GQFP, but got stopped dead in my tracks by this paragraph from Steve Hayden's foreword:
Now, I've worked in agencies run by gentlemen, and also in agencies dominated by talented assholes. And I'll take the latter everytime.
Yes, intelligence and politeness will allow an agency to deliver a consistently 'good' standard of work. But this same culture can also inhibit the leap from 'good' to 'great'.
Better a culture that accepts the need for challenges and questions, a culture which believes in for tempering strategies and creative work in the fires of argument and review. A culture that refuses to settle for 'good'.
image of Hunter S. Thompson via ffffound.com
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