Alexey Brodovitch

Alexey Brodovitch was a photographer, teacher and a designer. He was mostly famous for his art directions, primarily for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. He spent his early life in and out of the military and after fighting in the Russian army in World War I, Brodovitch worked as a graphic designer in Paris from 1920 until 1930, when he moved to New York City. His first major success came after winning a poster competition for a local theater. The 2nd place poster was created by Picasso.

 

He spent a total of 15 years working for the magazine and provided art direction for much of its content, until he left due to declining health (the story of his resignation varies between an amicable separation to a violent uproar after being confronted with his alcoholism). Brodovitch has set higher standards for the way future art directors design magazine spread layouts. Many of Brodovitch’s spreads appeared that in Harper’s Bazaar, a beauty and fashion magazine. Harper’s Bazaar began as a small company in 1867 that declined until 1913 when William Randolph Hearst bought and took over the company (Bauret). His style of mixing elegantly set typography with new and experimental ways in photography became widely popular in the 1940s/50s, and helped to keep the popularity of the magazines at the forefront of it’s field in this vast changing world.

 

Portfolio magazine front cover vol. 1

Portfolio magazine Back cover

He also was apart in directing a short-termed, but popular, American art and design publication with the title Portfolio. The creators had hoped that the quality of the content and it’s production value would meet as many audiences as they could, but it could not survive the cost of it’s publication and it was not long before it went under. Brodovitch also created a book title Ballet, which, at the time of its publication, included photographs that were quite controversial due to their use of motion blur. Nearly in every project that Brodovitch had touched or produced was done with success and he left a lasting impression on every one of his students and co-workers and nowadays designers.

Reference

Beazley, M., Aynsley, J., eds., 2004. Pioneers of Modern Graphic Design: A Complete History. London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.

Elif Ayiter, N/A. The History of Visual Communication. [online] Available at: <http://www.citrinit as.com/history_of_viscom/index.html> [Accessed December 2013].

Livingston, A. I., 2003. Graphic Design and Designers. London: The Thames & Hudson.