Bea Feitler and her career as an Graphic Designer and Art Director

South American Beginning

Born in Rio de Janeiro, 1938 her Jewish parents had fled Nazi Germany. The family was shown immense warmth and welcome by the community in South America and the whole family came to embrace this fresh start. Feitler would share this pride in her birth country by never taking on American Citizenship, although she spent most of her life in New York.

Graduating from the Parsons School of Design in 1959 she returned home for a short time to start a studio call Studio G with two other designers. They specialized in poster, album covers and book design, but also took on other magazine projects.

Passion and Work

Only a few years later, Feitler would be hired as an art assistant for Harper’s Bazaar by one of her Parsons professors, Marvin Israel. This would be the beginning of her ascension towards Art Director and with her ability to forge strong relationships with other creative minds around her, she would shortly become a shining star in the male dominated world of magazine design.

She became known for her passion towards her work and the drive that pushed her to ensure her work spoke for itself. Rather than flaunt her achievements in the faces of others she would pour that energy into the work itself. This natural charisma and desire to experiment with wild colours and dynamic compositions succeeded in speaking her skill loudly from the pages of anything she touched.

Lasting Impression

She would shape the look of Bazaar and four other magazines, leverage as many of the greatest photographers she could get her hands on and set standards all across the board for women in the design industry. Although the world was deprived of her spark in 1982, her hand in the design world sent out waves that left ripples that are still felt today.