I particularly liked the editorial designs of Harper’s Bazaar magazines by the Russian designer Alexey Brodovitch. Other than the interesting cropping of photographs which he was famous for, there was an intensive use of white space to bring emphasis to the visual elements on the cover page. The dynamic grid columns was interesting to me as well as it was very different from the regular horizontal and vertical grid system.

Brodovitch was the art director for Harper’s Bazaar magazine in the United States from 1934 to 1958 and revolutionized the mainstream American publications with his experimental editorial layouts – “the use of text and image in dual page layouts; the use of color photography; cropped and off center images; and the extensive use of white space”. (The Art Story) Brodovitch’s legacy was something worth mentioning as his experimentations are still relevant even as of today.

 

“All designers, all photographers, all art directors, whether they know it or not, are students of Alexey Brodovitch.” – Irving Penn (The Art Story)

 

If you don’t like full skirts…
Article in Harper’s Bazaar, Photographs by
George Hoyningen-Huene
March 1938 (Iconofgraphics)

 

The Consensus of Opinion
Article in Harper’s Bazaar, Photograph by Man Ray
March 1936 (Iconofgraphics)

 

Through his designs, I see how type and image can flow together to make a well-designed layout as he often relate his images to his typography within a spread. That showed how we can view typography, not only as plain text but also as an image on its own to achieve a layout that is dynamic and interesting. His works have played a very important role in the world of editorial design and they have inspired me to create something that can be as interesting.

 

References:

“Alexey Brodovitch Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/brodovitch-alexey/.

“Alexey Brodovitch.” Iconofgraphics, http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Alexey-Brodovitch/.