Saul Bass - Enterprise magazine

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Designer Edition oct 2017

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SAU L BASS

1920-1996

ANATOMY OF A

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MURDER

ew York born Graphic Designer Saul Bass rose to fame for his work in film and classic logo design. While simplistic; his poster designs evoked powerful messages.

Bass created iconic, minimal logo designs for major companies such as Bell (1969), Kleenex (1980’s) and AT&T (1986). The average lifespan of a Saul Bass logo was a staggering 34 years. Bass was also well known for creating movie title sequences. His work was bold, geometric and full of symbology. His unique handwritten letterforms and cut-and-paste style shaped him into the icon that he continues to be today.

In 1940 Bass left New York and moved to California to work in advertising, before having his major break. This break came after he created a poster for the 1954 film ‘Carmen Jones’.

Bass was then invited to design the title credits for the movie. The rest, as they say, is history. Bass went on to create dozens of iconic film posters and title credits for films including for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Vertigo (1958) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

During his career of over 40 years, Bass worked for some of Hollywood’s most popular filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. Bass invented a new type of kinetic typography which he incorporated into the memorable title sequences of some of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. These included North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Bass was committed to injecting as much life as he could into his graphics, creating a cinematic experience before the movie even began; setting the mood perfectly, without giving too much away. His signature letters could be seen dashing and moving frequently across the screen; whilst co-existing with other strikingly bold and symbolic graphics.

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Bass was true to his original style, which lead opportunity after opportunity his way; whether he expected it or not. “I just want to make beautiful things even if nobody cares.” During the 1960’s, in addition to creating the title sequences, Bass was asked by directors and producers to visualize and storyboard key scenes and sequences for the films. Bass was therefore the visual consultant on five films including Spartacus (1960), where he designed the key elements of the gladiator school and created the storyboard for the final battle between the slaves and the Romans.

“There is nothing glamorous in what I do. I’m a working man.

Perhaps I’m luckier than most in that I receive considerable satisfaction from doing useful work which I, and sometimes others, think is good.”

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BEAUTIFUL THINGS EVEN IF NOBODY CARES

Saul Bass was a master of presentation, extracting simple moments in time and raising them to the level of great art.

“Try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story” Bass quotes. “Design is thinking made visual.” Other notable movie posters and title sequences Bass worked on included Love in the Afternoon (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), The Two of Us (1967), Exodus and The Magnificent Seven (1960).

His final projects before his death in 1996 were credits for four Martin Scorsese films: Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993) and Casino (1995).

Saul bass won numerous awards for his memorable work. In 1969 he won the Academy Award in the Best Documentary category for Why Man Creates (1968). He won an award for Quest (1984) at the Fantafestival, the ‘Time-Machine Honorary Award’ at the Catalonian International Film Festival, the ‘Lion of San Marco’ award at the Venice Film Festival in the ‘Best Film about Adolescence’ category for The Searching Eye (1964), and was inducted into the Onlne Film and Television Association (OFTA) hall of fame in 2008.

I JUST WANT TO MAKE

“DESIGN IS THINKI NG MADE VISUAL”

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