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ALEXEY BRODOVITCH
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Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch
Was born in what is now known as Belarus to a wealthy family in 1898. His father, Vyacheslav Brodovitch, was a physician, psychiatrist and huntsman. His mother was an amateur painter. During the Russo-Japanese War, his family moved to Moscow, where his father worked in a hospital for Japanese prisoners. Alexey was sent to study at the Prince Tenisheff School in Saint Petersburg, with the intentions of eventually enrolling in the Imperial Art Academy. -
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Alexey Brodovitch
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Alexey joined the military
At the start of World War I at the young age of 16, Brodovitch abandoned his dream of entering the Imperial Art Academy and ran away from home to join the Russian army. Not long after, his father had him brought home and hired a private tutor to help Alexey finish school. Upon graduating, Brodovitch ran away again on several occasions -
Alexey joins the White Army
During the Russian Civil War, Brodovitch served with the White Army. While fighting against the Bolsheviks in Odessa, he was badly wounded and was hospitalized for a time in Kislovodsk, in the Caucasus. -
Alexey Meets Nina
In 1918, the town was surrounded by the Bolsheviks, forcing Brodovitch into exile. It was during this retreat to the south through Caucasus and Turkey that he met his future wife, Nina -
The Brodovitchs move to Paris
Upon arriving in Paris, Brodovitch wanted to be a painter. A Russian white immigrant in Paris, Brodovitch found himself poor and having to work for the first time in his life. He took a job painting houses, while his wife Nina worked as a seamstress. They lived in a cheap, small apartment in the area of Montparnasse, among other Russian artists who had settled in Paris at the end of the 19th century. -
Alexey enters the poster contest
Brodovitch entered a poster competition which searched for the most innovatory design to anounce an upcoming ball. He won the first prize, leaving a drawing by Picasso in second place. His design symbolically represented the idea of masking in the switch between colors black and white. This 'Bal Banal' poster was the beginning of his career as a graphic designer as it brought him to the attention of various designers and agencies. -
Nikita Brodovitch was born
The son of Alexey and Nina Brodovitch was born in 1924 -
Brodovitch wins medals, becomes in great demand
He won medals for fabric, jewelry and display design at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts. Soon he was in great demand, designing restaurant décor, posters and department store advertisements. -
Students talk about alexey
STUDENTS ON BRODOVITCH
"He taught me to be intolerant of mediocrity. He taught me to worship the unknown." - Art Kane, fashion and music photographer[27]
"I learned from him that if, when you look in your camera, you see an image you have ever seen before, don't click the shutter." - Hiro, fashion photographer[28] -
Alexey goes to America
He had become one of the most respected designers of commercial art in Paris. He looked across the Atlantic for new opportunities and was asked to come to Philadelphia to organize design classes at Philadelphia College of Art. At that moment Bodovitch was one of the pioneers to bring modernist ideas to America.*
Design of the early thirties was conservative and lacked of radical experiments. -
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Teaching in Philly
At the Philadelphia college of Art Brodovitch teached by using examples of european graphic design, questioning his students about the placing of the elements and the decisions made by the designers. He once said "we learn by making mistakes. We must be critical of ourselves and have the courage to start all over again after each failure. Only then do we really absorb, really start to know."* He placed himself on the same level as his students, treating them as equal. -
Beings Works at Harper's
The photographer Ralph Steiner who worked for Harper's Bazaar, recognized the potential of Brodovitch as a designer. He introduced him to Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of the magazine whom immediately offered him a job. -
photographed many ballets
Photographed several ballet companies such as Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo between 1935 and 1937
Even in his pictures, Alexey uses movement, and contrasting colours/values to create emphasis. -
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Harper's
Using white space and bold contrasting colours have beome part of Brodovitch's design style. -
Alexey bring Harper's on top
Alexey's design style brings Harper's Bazaar to the top, becoming more popular then vogue at the time. -
Alexey writes a book
Brodovitch releases a book full of his ballet photographs called BALLET. He photographed many photos with movement, taking many of the dancers limbs. -
Brodovitch works for PORTFOLIO
Brodovitch's legacy as a publications designer includes the short-lived but influential magazine Portfolio, three issues of which were published in 1949 and 1950. -
Harper's
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, 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. -
Harper's
Another example of Brodovichs style, lots of white space, contrasting colours, and a minimalist design shown here as the model. -
Alexey Brodovitch Died
Two years before his death, Alexey moved back to France and lived in a house in the south of France for the remainder of his life at age 73 Brodovitch died of declining health because of alcholism, ingury to his hip and mental health problems after his wife Nina's death. (I couldn't find when Nina died.) -
Alexey wins an AIGA
An AIGA medal is awarded to an individual for amazing acheivements in design.
