Bea Feitler (1938–1982)
Bea Feitler lived a short but successful life and career as not just a designer, but also as an art director. She was born in Brazil and later moved to study at the Parsons School of Design in New York and by the age of 25 in 1968, she was named already the an art assistant at Harper’s Bazaar.
After 10 years at Harper’s Bazaar, she moved over to be the AD at the launch of the Ms. magazine with the feminist and journalist, Gloria Steinem. It was the magazine of the women’s liberation movement. She was at the forefront of the feminism movement in the 70s, creating the look and feel for the movement. She was also the first art director to feature a Black woman on the cover of a magazine when she worked for Vanity fair.
What signified her work was her collaboration with artists and photographers, many claim that she inherited the spirit of Alexey Brodovitch (who was also a former AD at Harper’s Bazaar) as she also understood that spreads should be intentionally and individually constructed, yet at the same time should be connected to one another to form a harmonious rhythm.
