Saul
Bass
Saul Bass was one of the iconic graphic dsigners of the mid twentieth century. His work defined an era. He was well known for his work on film posters and film titles sequenes. His use of defamiliarized images and kinetic typography left a lasting print on the language of film advertising and motion picture title sequences. Saul Bass was born in the Bronx in 1920. His parents were eastern European Jewish immigrants. Bass attended night classes at Brooklyn college, where he met Gyorgy Kepes, who introduced Bass to László Moholy-Nagy’s Bauhaus style. Bass worked as a freelance graphic artist in Manhattan, but disliked the creative restraints and moved to Los Angeles when he was 26, and started his own design firm when he was 30.
Saul Bass Photograph Harrie Verstappen.
“Design is thinking made visible.�
In 1954, film director Otto Preminger invited Bass to design posters for his movie Carmen Jones. Prior to Bass’ style, movie posters would usualy take one scene or character from a film and use it as the poster. Saul Bass would take a symbol or significant moment from a film to create an iconic image which would communicate the core of the film through information based on associations and symbols. Carmen Jones’ title sequence featured a burning rose
Carmen Jones poster, 1954.
In 1955, Preminger had Bass design the poster and the title sequence for The Man With the Golden Arm. The film was about a jazz musician and his struggle with a heroin addiction. Bass’ branding on the film was pivotal to the language of film advertising today. The poster shows an arm reaching, with off kilter typography which calls to the tone of the film and the struggles of the main character.The title sequence was revolutionary in its own right and When the film was sent to theaters, instructions were sent with it asking the projection assistant to pull the curtain open before the title sequence, which showed white lines piercing through the black background, playing with the overtones of the film.
title sequence, man with the golden arm 1955.
Later, Bass said that the Man With the Golden Arm sequence “a little disappointing now, because it was so imitated”. Today many opening credits are playing off the style. Catch Me if You Can and Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn are very reminiscent of Bass’ style.
Saul Bass, Academy award winner for “why man creates” (1968)
“My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioing the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.”
title sequence, psycho (1969)
Bass reinvented movie title sequences as an art form. By the end of his life he had created over 50 title sequences. He worked regularly withOtto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese.In the 1960s, directors began to ask if he would storyboard key scenes in films. He storyboarded the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
still from psycho (1969) Storyboard for psycho (1969)
The bloody murder becomes a demilitarized fast cut scene. the moment of higest tension, when the character dies, occurs with the camera is not focused on the character, but on a shower curtain being ripped off of its hooks.
In addition to the mark he left on the film industry, in 1974 Saul Bass directed his only full length feature film, Phase IV. It was a box office failure, but acquired a cult following. After directing Phase IV, Bass turned to commercial graphic design and created many iconic corporate logos, including the Bell system logo in 1969 and the AT&T logo in 1983. Continental Airlines and United Airlines logos were both designed by Bass: ironically the companies merged in 2012 and now both use the original design for Continental Airlines.
Saul Bass died in 1996 at the age of 75. Near theend of his career he returned to movie credits and worked with Martin Scorsese, who had grown up watching his film work, watching his title work from the 1960. Bass created the title sequences for Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991) and TheAge of Innocence (1993). The style now no longer consisted of the optical effects his early work did but focus on innovative methods of production and startling graphic design. continental airlines logo (1974)
Designed and written by Alex Kuehne Composed in Franklin Gothic, typeface desinged by Morris Fuller Benton 1902–1967 Copyright Š 2015 Alex Kuehne portland, Maine, Maine College of Art Bibliography: By: Bass, Jennifer, and Pat Kirkham. Laurence King 2011