Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design

Alexey Brodovitch

1898–1971 | BORN: Ogolitchi, Russia

Incorporated white space and the double-page spread into American magazine design

Designed and edited Portfolio, an important graphic design magazine

Collaborated with photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Man Ray

“Astonish me!”⁶ was Alexey Brodovitch’s persistent challenge to the designers, photographers, and students he directed. A Russian émigré who moved from Paris to New York in 1930, he loved change, and looked at each issue of the magazines under his creative leadership as a chance to do something new.

Before Brodovitch became art director at Harper’s Bazaar, most American ...