Ruth Ansel 2016 AIGA Medalist Design That Appears Effortless, but It Takes a Lot of Work to Achieve,” Ansel Says

Ruth Ansel 2016 AIGA Medalist design that appears effortless, but it takes a lot of work to achieve,” Ansel says. “People are no longer aware [of] and impressed with how difficult it is to take a great picture... one that sticks in our minds forever. Anyone can take a good picture now and then. But it is very hard to make great pic- tures with intention, consistency, and originality. Recognized for her visionary work as an art director, for fostering emerging creative talent, and for her commit- ment to bridging the gap between art and commerce through design. Though she’s never formalized a grand theory of magazine design, there are four rules by which Ansel abides: Provoke: “Something new is off-putting,” she says. “The first human instinct is to reject it. A talented design director or photographer has to keep looking for it.” Inform: A good and critical eye is more than picking fonts and grids. It’s about being sensitive to social changes and then bringing those observations to your work. “It’s a conscious act to change and As co-art director of Harper’s Bazaar in the ’60s, art In 1961, Ansel moved back to New York City with the goal of “A dark, intelligent, introverted, Peress, whose images from the evolve your thinking,” she says. director of The New York Times Magazine in the ’70s, and working for Henry Wolf (1976 AIGA Medalist), who by then beautiful woman,” as Avedon de- streets of Iran appeared to be creative director overseeing the reinvention of Vanity Fair had succeeded Alexey Brodovitch (1987 AIGA Medalist) at scribed in an article for Graphis. in conversation with political Entertain: “You’re always trying in the ’80s, Ruth Ansel not only injected the glossy pub- Harper’s Bazaar. “Magazines were the closest thing I could They refused to accept the usual silkscreens by Andy Warhol. Then, to create a magazine that’s as lishing industry with some rock ‘n’ roll flair, she showed find to films,” she said. But instead of Wolf she found the boundaries and treated fashion in 1983, she revamped House & much about style and substance us how magazines, at their best, are a vital visual record, a magazine’s newly appointed art director, Marvin Israel. with the reverence of fine art, Garden, calling on photographer as it is about unexpected juxtapo- time stamp for an entire age. “Magazines give you an idea “Walking through the doors of Harper’s Bazaar in 1961 with even though most people at the William Eggleston to create a sitions,” she says. “It’s up to the of what it was like to be alive at a certain time,” she says. my portfolio under my arm was a life-changing moment,” time didn’t think that fashion series on Graceland. In 1984, she art director to encourage, sur- she says. He hired her, even though she had no experience. photography belonged in a muse- joined Vanity Fair as art director prise, shock, and have their finger Ansel developed a seemingly simple formula for success: “He liked that I didn’t have to unlearn any graphic design um, or that a magazine could be just as Tina Brown was taking on the pulse of the next thing.” work with the best people, carve out room for white space, clichés.” just as important as a Balanchine over as editor and revitalized the and then get out of the way. At Bazaar she worked with ballet. magazine, creating a living record Inspire: Sometimes, she says, Andy Warhol and with Richard Avedon from the ’60s until At Bazaar, she buried herself in back issues, where the of the Hollywood-obsessed, go-go you have to get out of the way his death in 2004. The ’60s also saw her side by side with work of photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, “For nine years they forged a 1980s, as seen through the lens and encourage “a general sense photographers Melvin Sokolsky, Hiro, and Diane Arbus; Lisette Model, Herbert Matter (1983 AIGA Medalist), and revolutionary new direction for of Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, and of direction to those talented in the ’70s, Sebastião Salgado, Bill King, and illustrators A. M. Cassandre had been published. And she learned the magazine, mixing conceptual Annie Leibovitz. people you have the opportunity Roger Law and Ed Sorel; then Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, how to develop a critical eye—“to be curious seven days photography with pop art, street to discover, nurture, and offer a and Bruce Weber in the ’80s; and Tim Walker in 2012 and a week,” she says. “And I learned that brilliant ideas fashion, rock music, and film,” In the early 1990s, she formed her place for them to show their best onward. without the ability to execute those ideas brilliantly are wrote Dennis Freedman, the own studio, designing mono- selves.” not enough.” She was also a child of the moment: The founding creative director of W graphs for Leibovitz, Richard Growing up in the Bronx, what Ansel loved best were Beatles, The Rolling Stones, pop art, street fashion. Israel magazine and later the creative Avedon, and Peter Beard as well There are risks with this the movies: The Thief of Bagdad, The Red Shoes. After encouraged that tension in the pages of the magazine. director of Barneys New York. as campaigns for Versace, Karl approach. To reject the aver- graduating from Alfred University in Western New York “With Marvin, the whole point of Bazaar was that you never Lagerfeld, and Club Monaco. age in favor of the potentially with a BFA in ceramic design, she moved to New York City just ran a beautiful portfolio of extraordinarily beautiful “The new talent they brought to She also began a highly pro- genius means sometimes being and began working for Columbia Records under Bob Cato. women who’ve been excessively retouched,” Ansel told The Bazaar changed the face of fash- ductive collaboration with the wrong—which is okay, she says. She fell in love with and married designer Bob Gill, who New Yorker in 2011. “You also ran a Diane Arbus portfolio ion photography.” photographer Tim Walker and “Magazines are always a work introduced her to what she calls the real “New York Design of eccentric people who tattooed their body and lived on designed the wall graphics for a in progress. Finding out what Mafia”—George Lois (1996 AIGA Medalist), Robert Brown- the Bowery, to have a counterbalance.” When Israel was Feitler left Bazaar in 1969, and 2012 London exhibition organized doesn’t work isn’t failure—it’s a john (2002 AIGA Medalist), Saul Bass (1981 AIGA Medalist), fired two years later, she and Bea Feitler (1989 AIGA Med- in 1974 Ansel went to The New around the publication of his way of eventually finding out what and Ivan Chermayeff (1979 AIGA Medalist). Their love didn’t alist) became co-art directors; they were both in their 20s. York Times Magazine, where she book, Storyteller, that she also does work.” last though, and she left to travel through Europe. Their ideal woman was always in motion. published photographs by Gilles designed. “I believe in simple Biography by James Gaddy Design by Ariana Dimitrakis.

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