getting in demand

Parisian friends helped Alexey secure a job as artist-decorator in Sergei Diaghilev's renowned company Ballets Russes. The young man created posters and decorations and took photos of dancers during rehearsals and try-ins. Alexey’s first success in design was a Grand Prix at a poster contest in 1924 for the charitable party Bal Banal: he outrun Pablo Picasso, who took the second prize. In 1925, Alexey won five medals for fabric, jewelry, and display design at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. Soon he was in great demand, designing décor, posters, and advertisements for department stores and restaurants.

Created with Sketch.

brodovitch viewed the page as a three-dimensional space, in length, breadth, and depth.

—william owen, author of modern magazine design book

Alexey Brodovitch at work at Harpers Bazaar

Alexey Brodovitch at work at Harpers Bazaar. Gelatin silver print. Photographer unknown. Photo via doyle.com.

 

breaking rules at harper’s bazaar

In 1930 Alexey moved to the U.S. and headed the Advertising Design Department at the Pennsylvania Museum. Four years later, Carmel Snow—the editor of Harper's Bazaar—foresaw the genius of Brodovitch and asked him to head the magazine’s design team. Alexey accepted the offer and introduced a variety of innovations: reiteration, dynamic pagination, scale contrasts, captions, and typography. Marvin Israel, a painter and designer who was an associate of Brodovitch at Bazaar, called him a man “obsessed with change.”

 

Cover of the September 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. A model wearing blue between columns

Cover of the September 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Photo via RIT Library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the February 1952 issue of Harper's Bazaar. The Well-Spent Dollar

Cover of the February 1952 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch, cover photo by Richard Avedon. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the October 1947 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Crossing arms forming a square
Cover of the August 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. The HB Look
Cover of the September 1956 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. A leg in a high-heeled shoe

Cover of the October 1947 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch, cover photo by Ernst Beadle. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the August 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the September 1956 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation.

Alexey Brodovitch working on a fashion layout. Newspaper cuttings stuck to a wall

Alexey Brodovitch working on a fashion layout. Photo by George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

The 9-minute wonder exercises. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar

The 9-minute wonder exercises. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Layout designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation.

If you don't like full skirts. Article in the March 1938 issue of Harper's Bazaar

If you don't like full skirts. Article in the March 1938 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Layout designed by Alexey Brodovitch, photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene. © The Hearst Corporation.

Paris, 1935. Article in the March 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar

Paris, 1935. Article in the March 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Layout designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation.

Silken shadows. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar

Silken shadows. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Layout designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation. 

The Consensus of Opinion. Article in the March 1936 issue of Harper's Bazaar
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