how cool was alexey brodovitch back in his day! diana vreeland wasn’t the only progressive nut-ball making harper’s bazaar amazing from the 30’s to the 60’s.

alexey was prominently influential in introducing into the united states the radically simplified graphic design of modernism. through his teaching, he created a generation of designers sympathetic to his belief in the primacy of visual freshness and immediacy. fascinated with photography, he made it the backbone of modern magazine design as photography was previously used sparingly, and he fostered the development of an expressionistic, almost primal style of picture-taking that became the dominant style of photographic practice in the 1950s.

basically, brodovitch is the model for the modern magazine art director. he did not simply arrange photographs, illustrations and type on the page, actively conceived and commissioned all forms of visual communications, as well as specializing in discovering and showcasing young and unknown talent. his first assistant in new york was irving penn. he also nurtured photographers such as leslie gill, richard avedon and hiro.

his impact on media, fashion and editorial expressions of harper’s bazaar made him a bit of a celebrity… for example, the film funny face which starred fred astaire as a photographer much like avedon, named its art-director character “dovitch.” by kl