brodovitch cover, harper's bazaar, 1952
alexey brodovitch exerted significant influence on American graphic design and photograph during his 25 year tenure as art director of Harper's Bazaar. his use of asymmetrical layouts, white space and dynamic imagery changed the nature of magazine design.
Mock-up spread for Harper's, late 1940s?
Brodovitch exposed Americans to the European avant-garde by commissioning work from leading European artists and photographers, including A.M. Cassisandre, Salvador Dali, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Man Ray.
spread for harper's, late 1930s ("if you don't like full skirts")
what's brodovitch style? elegance!
The Audry Hepburn Cover, 1956
1- while fashion magazines showed the whole garment, brodovitch would crop images unexpectedly or off-center to bring a new dynamism to the layout.
2- the form lies in the photograph or illustration as a cue for how to handle the shape of the text, whether splayed out on the page or in the shape of a fan,
3- only two images per page,
4- a suggested surrealist content, i.e., female figures in blurry forms to communicate this new way of sharing information, torn edges on photographs, or pages, as if they had been torn through with a woman's figure stepping out of them. or covers and spreads of harper's in the form of lips, hands, and eyes.