Maggie's Graphic Arts Blog: The New York School

The New York School

Maggie Merkin

ARTH 230-01

T. Long

Modern design in America really began when talented European artists immigrated to the U.S., seeking to escape the political totalitarianism in their homelands. The 1940s saw the beginnings of an American approach to modern design: while they borrowed from the work of these European artists, they also added their own new forms and concepts. This American kind of design was pragmatic, intuitive, and less formal than the more highly structured and theoretical work done by the Europeans. Designers and artists during this time found themselves in a highly competitive society, in which originality of concept, novelty of technique, and ability to communicate information directly were aspects that the general public and commissioners were looking for and most intrigued by. Personal expression and uniqueness was also something that was sought out for in design, making the field that much more competitive. These aspects of design were applied to almost every field in art, including editorial design. Editorial design in the 1940’s was particularly demanding, as only a few American magazines were well designed. Three of these magazines were Fortune, a business magazine, Vogue, a style and fashion magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar. The 1950s saw a period of revolution in editorial design, spurred in part by the classes that photographer Alexey Brodovitch (art director for Harper’s Bazaar) continued to teach. Expansive, design-oriented artists were mentored and instructed by Brodovitch, including Otto Storch, Brooklyn born artist and art director. Storch (1913-1999), graduated from the Pratt institute, and later studied at NYU and the Art Students League. After his schooling, Storch became art director for Dell, but, unsatisfied with his work assignments, he found himself attending some of Brodovitch’s classes at the New School. After seeing his portfolio, Brodovitch advised him to quit his job, and, taking his advice, a seven-year period of free-lancing followed. Storch later joined McCall’s Corporation as assistant art director for Better Living magazine. In 1958 Storch was free to give an upgrade to the magazine’s graphics, and a new creative visual approach was created, ranking Storch as a major innovator of the period. His philosophy that idea, copy art, and typography should be inseparable in editorial design had a heavy influence in both editorial and advertising graphics. Austrian born, American graphic designer and photographer Henry Wolf (1925-2005) was also a student of Brodovitch. He was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, and relocated to the U.S. in 1941, where he joined the army and later launched his own photography studio in New York. He became art director for the magazine Esquire in 1953, redesigning the magazine’s format, placing greater emphasis on the use of white space and large photographs. Wolf influenced and energized the magazine with his bold layouts, whimsical cover photos, and elegant typography, and his talents secured him a spot as successor art director for Harper’s Bazaar and Alexey Brodovitch. The sophistication and inventiveness of the photography that was commissioned for Harper’s Bazaar under Wolf were monumental achievements and heavily influential to editorial design. The late 1960’s saw a decline in the need for large pages, huge photographs, and graphic design in editorial magazines, as television and the demand for other types of magazines took over. However, the graphic design and artistic talents of these artists proved to be very influential and monumental to this era of editorial design.