Customer Reviews

Alexey Brodovitch

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Alexy Brodovitch is one of the best art directors of the 20th Century. This book is worth every penny because it really allows you to see his work in the same scale that he created it at. Thus when you are looking at a magazine spread from the master, you are seeing it full size - and not as a little pretty icon that decorates too many design annuals. In addition there are examples of his raw layouts, which really let you see a genius at work. This book is a must for any fan of graphic design, photography and fashion.

This book represents one of the very few studies of one of the masters of American advertising and graphic design. Brodovitch served as mentor to such photographic luminaries as Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, and his distinctive and very modernistic style of layout and use of the grid are exemplary. He was integral to magazine design in the middle of this century, and yet has fallen into relative unknown. Unreasonably so. Any student of graphic design, its design or current practice, would do well to own this book. In this age of busy, frantic graphic pages, Brodovitch's work reflects a serene, yet knife-edged clarity.

This beautifully produced and historically important book is a unique tribute to the great designer, Alexey Bradovitch, in that it concentrates on the format of the double page spread which was arguably the master's most significant area of innovation in magazine and book design. Reproduced in the large format book are many of Bradovitch's most notable spreads. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in graphic design, typography, photography, and the printed page. It is valuable both as visually fascinating volume to page through, and as a reference work to be studied and inspired by.
Russell Munson

To stay as the Art Director of one magazine, as Brodovitch did, at Harper's Bazaar for twenty-four years must be some sort of record. Creative folk in the publishing world tend to change like the wind. Part of the success of the magazine must surely be because he stayed for so long and what a wise choice it was by the new Editor Carmel Snow to hire him in 1934.

Look through the life-size spreads in this book and I think it becomes apparent that the Brodovitch layouts are wonderful examples of less is more. The actual ingredients: photos; headlines and text seem so effortlessly placed on the spread because he encouraged photographers to shoot for the page leaving him the relatively easy task of completing the layout by positioning the other elements. Nearly all the spreads shown use photos and taken by the best: Richard Avedon; Irving Penn; Hiro; Lillian Bassman; Bill Brandt; Eugene Smith and others. When Brodovitch got prints from these photographers there wasn't much left to do, though he took a lot of time with photostats to help get the size of the images just right.

The book unfortunately has some editorial weaknesses. All of Brodovitch's work is presented as individual spreads surrounded by very wide black margins. Where are the fashion and beauty features that ran over several pages? To see these would have added to a greater appreciation of his work. There are no page numbers and the captions are at the back of the book with a thumbnail of the spread, I think this is a lazy way of doing things for the reader. The captions really should have been placed in the wide margins on the relevant page. Most of the material is in black and white but this is printed in four colors and rather annoyingly only with a 150 screen. The mono material would have worked better as duotones with a minimum 200 screen to bring out the beauty of Brodovitch's creativity.

Luckily there is another books about him which I think does a better job than this book. Brodovitch (Masters of American Design) by Andy Grundberg, published in 1989 by Abrams, is a proper visual biography which covers all of Brodovitch's life. Plenty of Bazaar spreads, including sequences, a section on Portfolio magazine and a look at many other examples of his print creativity.

***LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.