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Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha (Mykolayiv, March 11, 1896 - Pennsylvania, May 1978) was a Russian-born Turkish designer, art director, and pioneer of modern American publishing. He was instrumental in defining the role of the magazine art director and delivering the full force of European avant garde experimentation to the pages of Vogue , Vanity Fair, and House & Garden , the Condé Nast publishing company's flagship magazines in the United States. § [1]
Agha was born in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) to parents Yossouf Agha and Anna Khoroz [2] into a family of Turkish descent. He obtained an economics degree at the Emperor Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute in Kiev and a special degree from the National School of Modern Oriental Languages in Paris. [3] Agha then started furthering his skills in the arts, specifically photography, typography, and the sciences. [1]
Through his work at both the Paris and Berlin editions of Vogue, Agha became known to Condé Nast who liked Agha's "sense of order, taste and invention," [4] When Agha arrived at Vogue's New York City offices in 1929, he ignited a design revolution when he revamped the magazine—as well as its sister publications Vanity Fair and House & Garden. [5]
In fashion publications, Agha adjusted the graphics, simplified layout and imposed a close relationship between text and images. Agha stripped down Vogue's old-fashioned appearance, favoring Art Deco curves and the clean lines of Constructivism. He traded italic lettering for forward-leaning sans serif fonts like Futura, and removed all extraneous design elements from the pages—the borders around photos, column rules, sidebars—while synchronizing the magazine's look with the latest out of avant-garde Europe. During his career, Agha widened Vogue's margins to such an extent that the white space on either side of the page left enough “room for your laundry list," [6] as one wit put it. He designed the first ever double-page spreads, and the first full-bleed images, printing photographs without any borders at all, right over the edge of the page. Agha also involved himself in every aspect of the editorial process. Beyond good design, “you must get modern material first if you intend to publish a really modern magazine," he said in 1930. Vanity Fair's urbane editor, Frank Crowninshield, noted that Agha expanded so rapidly that “an additional floor had to be engaged in the Graybar Building in order to prevent him from bulging out of the windows, growing through the roof, or occupying the elevator shafts.” [7] His responsibilities soon came to include Vanity Fair , as well as, the home-style journal House & Garden. Agha incorporated photographs by Edward Steichen, Carl Van Vechten, and Edward Weston, as well as the pictorial feature. [5]
In 1943 Agha left and became a graphic arts consultant. He served as president of the Art Directors Club (1935) and AIGA (1953–55). [1] In a tribute published by PM Magazine in August 1939, William Golden wrote about the lofty expectations Agha placed on his designers: "Agha's demands seem so simple. Make something legible, present it logically and make it look somehow luxurious... in a way that he will like. So they devise not merely one version of how they think a page should look, but ten, or twenty, or forty... And for sheer productivity this method is unequalled. As for those bales of rejected layouts that have never seen the light of day; I don't think they are completely wasted. Some day, a less jaded scholar of the Graphic Arts will unearth them and discover again the amazing amount of original and exciting work that was stimulated by the man who knew too much to like anything."—DP [8]
Vanity Fair is an American monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States.
Condé Montrose Nast was an American publisher, entrepreneur and business magnate. He founded Condé Nast, a mass media company, and published titles such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.
Vogue U.S., also known as American Vogue, or simply Vogue, is a monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers style news, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. It is part of the global collection of Condé Nast's VOGUE media.
Condé Nast is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.
Fashion photography is a genre of photography that portrays clothing and other fashion items. This sometimes includes haute couture garments. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking pictures of a dressed model in a photographic studio or an outside setting. It originated from the clothing and fashion industries, and while some fashion photography has been elevated as art, it is still primarily used commercially for clothing, perfumes and beauty products.
House & Garden is a shelter magazine published by Condé Nast Publications that focusses on interior design, entertaining, and gardening that began in the USA in 1901.
William Golden was an American graphic designer. He is best known as the designer of the CBS logo. He started in the CBS Radio promotion department and culminating in his tenure as creative director of advertising and sales promotion for CBS Television Network. Golden gained a reputation for always striving for a perfect, simple solution to the problem at hand, producing an original and distinguished design to convey the message.
Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman was a Ukrainian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publications.
Christian von Alvensleben is a German photographer.
Hamish Bowles is an English fashion journalist and editor. He is Vogue magazine's global editor at large. On 17 September 2021, Hamish was also named the new editor in chief at The World of Interiors, a Condé Nast interior design magazine. In addition to his editorial roles, Bowles has hosted the podcasts In Vogue: The 1990s and In Vogue: The 2000s. He also narrates Vogue's popular YouTube series Everything You Need to Know.
Herbert Matter was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. Matter's innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20th-century graphic design.
Francis Welch Crowninshield was an American journalist and art and theater critic best known for developing and editing the magazine Vanity Fair for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.
Peter Philips is a Belgian make-up artist, and currently the creative and image director of Christian Dior makeup.
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913 to 1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to its becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue in 1936. In the 1980s, the title was revived.
Diane Kendal is a British-born make-up artist currently residing in New York City. She is the creative director for Rabanne Beauty.
Cipe Pineles was an Austrian-born graphic designer and art director who made her career in New York at such magazines as Seventeen, Charm, Glamour, House & Garden, Vanity Fair and Vogue. She was the first female art director of many major magazines, as well as being credited as the first person to bring fine art into mainstream mass-produced media. She married two prominent designers, twice widowed, had two adopted children, and two grandchildren.
Anna Harvey became Editorial Director of Condé Nast New Markets in 1997, was former Deputy Editor of British Vogue and former stylist and confidante to Diana, Princess of Wales. Her career at Condé Nast Publications spanned more than 30 years and she was regarded as one of the most significant contributors to the fashion industry.
Robert Lincoln Leslie was an American medical doctor, graphic designer, and typologist.
Sarajane Hoare is a British fashion journalist, director, and stylist who, since the 1980s has worked for British Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar. She has been instrumental in developing the career of photographer Herb Ritts, shoe designer Tamara Mellon, and journalist Kate Phelan.
Albert Read is the managing director of Condé Nast Britain, overseeing titles and businesses including British Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, GQ Style, Tatler, Condé Nast Traveller, Glamour, Wired UK, Love, House & Garden, World of Interiors, and Condé Nast Johansens.
1934–1942. "M. F. Agha." Dr. Leslie Project. http://www.drleslie.com/Contributors/agha.shtml.
Hall of Fame 1972. "M. F. Agha." The Art Directors Club. http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1972/?id=293.
"The Man Who Knew Too Much," by William Golden. PM Magazine. Vol. 5, no. 2 (Aug./Sept. 1939).http://library.rit.edu/gda/content/educational
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