Alexey Brodovitch was a Russian-born graphic designer and art director who revolutionized magazine design. He began his career in Paris designing advertisements, textiles, and jewelry. In the 1930s, he moved to Philadelphia to head the design department at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. There, he introduced students to modern European design. In the 1940s, Brodovitch became art director at Harper's Bazaar, where he pioneered innovative layouts using photography and white space. He also produced the influential but short-lived graphic design magazine Portfolio. Throughout his career, Brodovitch mentored many famous photographers and designers. Though he struggled with health issues in his later years, Brodovitch

1. Alexey
Brodovitch

2. Early
Life
Alexey Brodovitch was an american magazine art director, graphic designer, and
photographer. He was born in Ogolichi, Russian Empire to a wealthy family in 1898
His father, Cheslau Brodovitch, was a respected physician, psychiatrist and huntsman.
His mother was an amateur painter. During the Russo-Japanese War, his family
moved to Moscow, where Alexey was sent to study at the Prince Tenisheff School, a
prestigious institution in Saint Petersburg, with the intentions of eventually enrolling
in the Imperial Art Academy. He had no formal training in art through his childhood,
but often sketched noble profiles in the audience at concerts in the city. At the start
of World War I at the young age of 16, Brodovitch abandoned his dream of entering
the Imperial Art Academy and ran away from home to join the Russian army. Not long
after, his father had him brought home and hired a private tutor to help Alexey finish
school. Upon graduating, Brodovitch ran away again on several occasions. During the
Russian Civil War, Brodovitch served withz the White Army. In 1918, the town was
surrounded by the Bolsheviks, forcing Brodovitch into exile. It was during this retreat
to the south through Caucasus and Turkey that he met his future wife, Nina. By good
fortune, Alexey’s brother Nicolas turned out to be one of the soldiers guarding the
refugees in Novorossiysk. Not long after, their father, who had been imprisoned in
SaintPetersburgbytheBolsheviks,managedtofleetoNovorossiyskinhopesoffinding
his family. The three were once again together, and arranged for Brodovitch’s mother
and other relations to join them in Constantinople. Finally reunited, the Brodovitchs
made their way to France. Upon arriving in Paris, Brodovitch wanted to be a painter,
but found himself poor and having to work for the first time in his life. He took a job
painting houses, while his wife Nina worked as a seamstress. They lived in the area
of Montparnasse among other Russian artists who had settled in Paris at the end of
the 19th century. This group of artists, including Archipenko, Chagall, and Nathan
Altman,wouldmeetattheinexpensiveAcadémieVassilieff,whichofferedpaintingand
sculpting classes without an instructor. Paris was a cosmopolitan city through which
many artists and art movements passed. Brodovitch was exposed to everything from
Dadaism from Zurich and Berlin, Suprematism and Constructivism from Moscow,
BauhausdesignfromGermany,FuturismfromItaly,DeStijlfromtheNetherlands,and
the native strains of Cubism, Fauvism, Purism and Surrealism. Among these various
artistic influences, Brodovitch found his beginnings as a designer.

3. Design
Brodovitch began sketching designs for textiles, china, and jewelry. By the time his work for
the ballet had finished, he had already compiled an extensive portfolio of these side projects
and was selling his designs to fashionable shops. He worked part-time doing layouts for
Cahiers d’Art, an important art journal, and Arts et Métiers Graphiques, an influential design
magazine. He gained public attention by winning a competition for an artists’ soiree called Le
Bal Banal on March 24, 1924. The poster was exhibited on walls all over Montparnasse. He
continued to gain recognition as an applied artist due to his success at the Paris International
Exhibit of the Decorative Arts in 1925. He received five medals: three gold medals for
kiosk design and jewelry, two silver medals for fabrics, and the top award for the Beck Fils
pavilion “Amour de l’Art.” After these wins Brodovitch’s careeras an applied artist took off.
In 1928 he was hired by Athélia, the design studio of the Parisian
department store Aux Trois Quartiers, to design and illustrate
catalogues and advertisements for their luxury men’s boutique,
Madelios.Brodovitchwasawarethatmanyofthecustomerswerefairly
traditional in their tastes, so he balanced out his modern designs with
classical Greek references. Although employed full-time by Athélia,
he was hired by Athélia, the design studio of the Parisian department
store Aux Trois Quartiers, to design and illustrate catalogues and
advertisementsfortheirluxurymen’sboutique,Madelios.Brodovitch
was aware that many of the customers were fairly traditional in their
tastes, so he balanced out his modern designs with classical Greek
references. Although employed full-time by Athélia, Brodovitch
offered his service as a freelance designer on the side. He started
his own studio, L’Atelier A.B. Brodovitch embraced technical
developments from the spheres of industrial design, photography,
and contemporary painting. His broad curiosity began to assimilate
themostinterestingaspectsofallthesefieldsintohiswork,eventually
making them his own. He later instilled this same curiosity in his
students, encouraging them to use new techniques like the airbrush,
industrial lacquers, flexible steel needles, and surgical knives.
By the age of 32, Brodovitch had dabbled in producing posters,
china, jewelry, textiles, advertisements, and paintings. Eventually
specializing in advertising and graphic design, he had become one of
the most respected designers of commercial art in Paris. By 1930,
however, Paris had lost its luster for Brodovitch. The once-flourishing
spirit of adventure and experimentation was fading away. Although
he was offered many design positions, Brodovitch turned them down,
presumably looking for new locales to advance his designs.

4. ASTONISH ME!
The advice was simple
Bear these words in mind and
whatever you do will be creative
While still living in Paris, Brodovitch was offered a job by John Story Jenks. Jenks, a trustee of the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial
Art, was overwhelmed by Brodovitch’s talents and asked him to head the school’s Advertising Design Department. In September 1930,
Brodovitch moved to Philadelphia with his wife and son to take the job. Brodovitch began teaching advertising design, creating a special
department devoted to the subject. Brodovitch’s task was to bring American advertising design up to the level of Europe’s. Before his arrival,
advertising students were simply copying the magazine styles of N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. The illustrations were beautiful, but had
evolved from the tradition of 19th-century romantic realism, a thing of the past. Brodovitch’s teaching technique, on the other hand, was
unlike any other the students had been exposed to. He would always teach with a visual aid. Brodovitch would bring into class French and
German magazines to examine the pages with his students, explaining the artist’s work or technique. He would raise questions like, “Could
this line be better? Could it be like, for example, Cocteau?” When not in the classroom, Brodovitch would take the class on outings around
Philadelphia to see factories, laboratories, shopping centers, housing projects, dumps, and the zoo. The students were then told to make a
“graphicimpression”ofwhattheyhadseen.Brodovitchdidnotteachintheconventionalsense,butrathercompelledhisstudentstodiscover
one’sinner,creativeresources.In1933,BrodovitchaddedtheDesignLaboratorytotheclassesheoffered.Itwasmeanttobeaworkshopfor
his advanced students who wanted to experiment with all aspects of design. Brodovitch shared the Bauhaus belief that you needed to educate
the whole individual by directing his or her attention to a variety of modern solutions in their graphic projects. Among the photographers who
attended his classes were Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, David Attie, Richard Avedon, Harvey Lloyd, Hiro, Lisette Model, Garry Winogrand and
Tony Ray-Jones.

5. Harper’s Bazaar
During his tenure at Harper’s Bazaar, Brodovitch revolutionized American magazine design. He departed from the static layouts
and conventional posed studio photographs prevalent in 1930s editorial design. Instead, he emphasized the double-page spread
as a dynamic field upon which exquisite photographs, crisp Bodoni typefaces, and elegant white space were arranged into a total
composition.Brodovitchsoughttoimbueeachmonthlyissuewithavisualflowanalogoustoamusicalcomposition.Heusedchanges
insize,complexity,values,andcolourstoprovidetheviewerwithasequenceofvaryingexperiences,evokingenergyandmovement
on the printed page. He assigned covers and interior images to modern European artists and designers including Herbert Bayer,
Cassandre, and Salvador Dalí, and he commissioned important photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martin Munkacsi,
and Man Ray to take dynamic location and experimental photographs. An important emerging postwar generation of American
photographersthatincludedRichardAvedonandIrvingPennbegantheircareersunderBrodovitch’sartdirection. Thequalitythat
guaranteed his success was his devotion to the new, unending surprise and vitality. His style for the magazine was radically different
than any of its contemporaries. Brodovitch wanted his spreads to be innovative and fresh. While other fashion magazines thought it
important to show the whole garment, Brodovitch would crop images unexpectedly or off-center to bring
a new dynamism to the layout. He used forms in the photographs or illustrations as a cue for how to handle
the shape of the text. In his earlier layouts, he would arrange photographs like playing cards, splayed out
on the page or in the shape of a fan. Later in his career, however, he abandoned this technique in favor
of using only one or two images to a page. He would create versions of small movie stills or spreads in
which women were supposed to see themselves rather than the model. For example, he would often use
a model’s silhouette rather than her whole form, or keep her face in shadow, so that any reader could
place themselves in those fashions, leading a charmed life. The result would be a magazine of images “out
of which scripts can be formed of imagined lives.”he cinematic effect, a trademark characteristic of his
layouts, involved using photographs as if they were stills from a film. He would repeat a pose or a dress
several times across a spread to give a narrative, temporal feeling. At times, Brodovitch would arbitrarily
take a series of photographs and adopt a story line to go with them, as though recapping a movie. He was
known to push this idea even further by adding film sprocket borders to photographs at times. Brodovitch
also often emphasized spatial illusions, using type and photographs to create multiple perspectives within
a space. The notion of mirroring and doubling also interested him, as can be seen in how he paired similar
pictures on a spread or dividing halves of one image across the gutter of the page.One of his assistants at
the magazine was future Rolling Stone art director Tony Lane.

6. PORTFOLIO
In1949,BrodovitchcollaboratedintheproductionoftherevolutionarypublicationPortfolio.
It has been widely acknowledged as perhaps the definitive graphic design magazine of the
twentieth century. The idea for the publication came from art director Frank Zachary. He
wanted to put out a magazine that focused solely on art and design, but was at the same time an
outstanding example of design itself. Brodovitch was intrigued by the concept. Although he
enjoyedhisworkatHarper’sBazaar,thelimitationsofspaceandsubjectmatteroftencramped
his creative style. Portfolio freed him from the practical and aesthetic restraints to which he
had grown accustomed. The pages of the publication were space for his graphic imagination
to run wild. Brodovitch was responsible for sorting through the articles and illustrations to
create the spreads. Zachary described watching Brodovitch in action: “He’d go through the
stuff fast, really fast, and pick out always the right thing, you know, and then he would mark it
up, an inch, inch and a half, two and a half inches... But anyhow, I’d go back to see him, he’d
have these damn ‘stats all over the floor, ankle deep in them, and he would look around, pick
one up, until there were six or eight or ten and then he’d lay them out and it worked... that
was the magic of it, you know?” Inside Portfolio, Brodovitch promoted features devoted to
respected artists and designers, contributed articles on vernacular design, and made wildly
imaginative layouts. The magazine encompassed an array of subject matter and design styles.
Works of great French poets were interspersed with off-beat articles about graffiti by hobos.
It was a beautifully composed mix-up of all things art. Unfortunately, the publication lasted
only three issues. The no-expense-spared ethos of the magazine, paired with the lack of
advertising, caused the magazine to quickly fold.

7. Between 1935 and 1937, Brodovitch photographed several ballet companies, including the
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, during their visits to New York on world tours. Although at the
time he claimed the photos were only meant to be souvenirs, they evolved into something
greater. The style in which Brodovitch photographed deviated from the sharp, straight
photography popular at the time. According to one colleague, his images “spat in the face
of technique and pointed out a new way in which photographers could work.” Brodovitch
released a book of these photographs in 1945, titled simply Ballet, through a small New York
publisher. The book contains 104 photographs of several ballets and is divided into eleven
segments, one for each ballet performance. On the contents page, Brodovitch introduces
each chapter in a typographic style that emulates the feel of the dance it is describing. He
photographed with a Contax 35mm camera, no flash, and with a slow film speed.[50] The
blurred figures of the dancers allow the viewer to not only feel the music, but also to follow the
line of the dancer’s limbs mid-step. The images beautifully capture the atmosphere on-stage,
the frenzied behind-the-scenes action backstage, and the magical moments of the ballet. By
bleeding the blurred, grainy pictures off the pages and into the gutters, he communicated the
emotional impact of the dance without words.
Ballet

8. The Last Years
Note by Harvey Lloyd, artist and photographer:
“I took personal care of Alexey Brodovitch and managed his Design Laboratory Workshops during his last six years in NYC to provide him
with income to live on. He moved into my building at Union Square in New York with his son Nikita. I saw him every day, worked with him and
watched over his deteriorating health. He drank too much and ate little food. Brodovitch came to virtually every Design Laboratory workshop
session and invited many of the famous in the fields of design and photography. I recorded him and his well known visitors talking during
those many sessions. These recordings are now available to hear at R.I.T. library in Rhode Island. His mind remained sharp and true to his
beliefs during those last years in New York City. It was the greatest privilege to do this for him and to learn from him. He loved New York and
I had to make him leave to go to his brother in France, as he was wasting away. There will never be another Brodovitch.”

9. Legacy
In 1971 the Doctor of Fine Arts Degree
was conferred posthumously on Brodovitch
by the Philadelphia College of Art. In 1972
the Philadelphia College of Art held the
exhibition “Alexey Brodovitch and His
Influence” and he was inducted into the Art
Directors Club Hall of Fame in New York.
In 1982 the exhibition “Hommage à Alexey
Brodovitch” was held at Grand-Palais, Paris.
In 2002 Phaidon Press published the book
Alexey Brodovitch by Kerry William Purcell.
His layouts remain models of graphic
intelligence and inspiration, even if seldom
imitated, and the artists, photographers
and designers whose careers he influenced
continue to shape graphic design in the
imageofhisuncompromisingideals.Notable
students include: David Attie, Richard
Avedon , Marvin Israel, Lillian Bassman,
Ryszard Horowitz,Paul Himmel, Hiro, Roy
Faulconer,Ed Feingersh, Tom Palumbo,
Karl Bissinger,Mary Fullerton, Stewart
Graves,Joseph Gering, Brides Robert
Greenwell, Nelson Gruppo, Elizabeth
Lovett, Allan Porter, Alfred Lowrey, David
Steck, Victor Trasoff, Irving Penn , Ted
Croner, Arthur Boden,