SAUL BASS El Paso Museum of Art January 23–May 8, 2014
Saul Bass, 1965.
The 1950s in the United States was a time of recovery. World War II had just ended, the middle class started growing, and the popularity of television increased, along with advertising and consumerism, rock-n-roll became popular and there was a relaxation of social taboos, especially sexism and racism. This period of American art was influenced by the movements of Bauhaus, Futurism, and Cubism. One of the outstanding artists of the time was Saul Bass, whose extraordinary career includes designs for both the film industry and the corporate world.
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Early Years Saul Bass, the creator of commercials, packaging, album and book covers, typefaces, and film sequences, was born on May 8, 1920, in East Bronx, New York. Born of Russian immigrant parents, Bass initially spoke only Yiddish, and later learned English when he started school. His first artwork was made with a Crayola box that his father gave him, since then he started to show his talent and creativity. His position as arts editor of his school’s yearbook and literary publication helped him to earn a scholarship to the Art Student League, which he attended in the evenings after
Saul and Elaine, 1965.
working during the day. There, he was a student of Howard Trafton for three and a half years and whose projects would later greatly inspire Bass’s work. Then Bass worked for a label designer and later on at a photo-offset plan. He then got a job in an art studio and worked in various advertising agencies. Bass became one of the higher-paid young workers. In 1938 he got a job for Warner Brothers, and his first award was from the New York Art Directors Club for an advertisement he made for a hair product.
In 1940, he married a neighborhood girl, Ruth Cooper, with whom his first two children were born, Robert and Andrea.
Saul with students, 1949.
In the 1940s, he discovered that Gyorgy Kepes taught at Brooklyn College and he enrolled to learn from him. Kepes turned Bass on to Bauhaus-style graphics, as well as European Modernism, Constructivism, Cubism, De Stijl and Surrealism, which made Bass’s work more abstract and dynamic.
In 1956, Bass started his own studio in Hollywood, which became Bass/Yager & Associates and in 1957 he won Art Director of The Year. It was then that he hired Elaine Makatura as an assistant, with whom he found a perfect complement not only for design but also for his life, and in 1961 they got married, later having two children, Jennifer and Jeffrey.
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Bass and family on location Rift Valley, 1973 .
Film Industr Saul Bass’s mostly minimalistic, symbolic, modernist, and
on to design title sequences for legendary directors like
abstract designs built him a reputation in the film industry.
Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder, but he was most prolific
As Steven Heller describes, Bass’s title sequences were
with Otto Preminger, for whom he made designs for more
“films that introduced films”, by which Bass wanted to
than nine movies. Bass was eventually asked to create not
set the mood of the film. Human bodies or just parts of
only the title sequences and the posters of the movies,
them are usually found in Bass’s work, especially eyes and
but also to direct important scenes, like the shower
hands, in a wide variety of color palettes in both the film’s
scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1960. After being
title sequences and posters. He created simple designs for
so involved in the film world he, and Elaine made their
complex ideas, and his first famous title sequence design
own films like The Solar Film, Quest, and Why Man Creates,
was for Otto Preminger’s film The Man with the Golden
which won a 1968 Oscar for best short documentary. In
Arm (1955). The movie is about drug addiction, and Bass
the early 1990s, Bass and his wife returned to their passion
represented this with the image of a disjointed arm, which
for creating title sequences for the films Dun Huang: The
symbolized the disjointedness of the life. Bass also went
Silk Road, The War of the Roses, and Mr. Saturday Night.
Frames from the Shower Sequence Scene from Psycho, 1960.
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The Man With The Golden Arm, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1955.
Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1958.
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Saint Joan, directed by Otto Preminger, 1957.
Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock 1958.
“I
saw t h e titl e as a way of conditioning t h e audi ence so t hat w h en t h e fi lm actual ly began vi ew ers would alr eady hav e an emotional r esonance wit h it. ” — Saul
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, directed by Stanley Kramer, 1963.
Bass
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Corporate Design Bass’s designing talent was not exclusive to films. He
Bass was also one of the first freelance designers
also created corporate identities , album and book
to design album covers. These included Columbia
covers, service stations, packaging, and environmental
Record’s Barber Shop Harmony, by The Sportsmen
projects. Those who knew Bass describe him as
Quarter, and Frank Sinatra’s Tone Poems of Color. Bass
generous, warm, enthusiastic, and having a great sense
also illustrated the children’s book Henri’s Walk to Paris
of humor. Moreover he considered it very essential to
by Leonore Klein in 1962. He also designed packaging
have a good relationship with his clients. He not only
for Flo Ball pens, Reynolds gift wrap, Chicken of the Sea
had the ability to create great designs, but he was also
canned tuna, White Magic soap, Kleenex, a wrapping
able to present complex ideas with grace, style, clarity
paper for Keio Department store in Japan, and Rose
and patience. When designing corporate identities,
Marie Reid’s Stylish California swimsuits, for which he
Bass would look at the essence of the company, and
was awarded a medal by the New York Art Directors
represent it through the design. For Bass, creativity
Club in 1951. His skill was even applied to furniture. For
was “an act that transforms the ordinary into the
example, he created a line of modular cabinets with
extraordinary”. His first major identity campaign
supporting benches for Tru Sonic of Los Angeles and
was for Lawry’s Seasoning & Food Company. Others
created tiles for the Pomona Tile Company. In addition,
followed like Continental Airlines, Alcoa, Minolta,
Bass even designed playgrounds and low-cost housing
Bell Telephone, Quaker, United Airlines, and AT&T,
projects. Bass’s commercial designs were for ABC
the latter of which was his client for 28 years. He
Television, CBS, RCA, Blitz Beer, Mennen skin care
also designed letterheads and corporate identities for Samsonite, Bank of America, Transport-a-Child
products, IBM, Hallmark Cards and many more. He
Foundation, the Laurence Puppets, and the Society
also designed the openings for shows like The Frank
of Illustrators of Los Angeles. Bass created more than
Sinatra Show, 4 Just Men, Profiles in Courage, The
30 trademarks over the course of his long career.
Supreme Court & Civil Liberties, and the Alcoa Premiere.
Tone Poems of Color Album Cover, 1956.
Henri’s Walk to Paris Book Cover, 1962.
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Corporate logos designed by Bass, 1969-1991.
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Legac Saul Bass spoke at conferences, was very active in organizations and policy-making, and liked to offer his designs to causes. He revolutionized title sequences in film, and created the image of many corporations around the world, making him the Honorary Royal Designer for Industry in 1965 and winner of the Golden Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (1981). Ending up with a 60-year career, Saul Bass died in 1996 in Los Angeles at the age of 75 of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Bass’s legacy lives on, as he continues to influence contemporary designers. For example, the animated title sequences for recent films Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and for the television show Dexter (2011) all pay homage to Bass’s simplistic, yet powerful style.
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Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg, 2002.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, directed by Shane Black, 2005.
“ Design is thinking made visual ”
– Saul Bass
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