Jennielyn Aquino
Prof. Goetz
COMD 1112
Research Paper
Alexey Brodovitch
Alexey Brodovitch was both a Russian-American graphic designer and photographer. He was known to be the art director for a fashion called Harper’s Bazaar. Brodovitch was born in 1898 in Ogolitchi, Russia. Brodovitch was born into a wealthy family. He began his career as a graphic designer when he was in Paris from 1920 to 1930. But It was right after he was enlisted to fight in a Russian Army during World War I. After World War I, Brodovitch returned to France to reunite with his family. He started to look for a job for the first time since he was deprived of wealth. He always wanted to become a painter, so he took a house painting job. He was able to work as a painter for backdrops at Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe because of the connection he had with emigrated Russian artists. During his spare time, He would begin sketching designs that were for textiles and jewelry. Soon enough, his side project became successful in selling his designs to fashionable shops after he completed his ballet works. He took another part-time job which where he was creating layouts for art journals and design magazines. He juxtaposed the type, photographs, and illustration of the magazine. However, Brodovitch started to gain recognition for his design work which won first place for a poster competition for an artist event called “Le Bal Banal.” This poster was a bold design that was inverting the mask shape, type, and background. He continued gaining that recognition just after his success in the Paris Internation Exhibit of the Decorative art during 1925, earning at least 5 medals. In 1930, Brodovitch started to move to the united states after accepting a job post as a professor of advertising in Philadelphia. Then in 1934, Carmel Snow who was the editor-in-chief for Harper Bazaar hired Brodovitch as the art director in order to revive the magazine with his modern spirit. He would modernize the magazine graphic along with bringing photography to the fore. Brodovitch became a huge influence on many photographers.
CITATION
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