Saul Bass in El Paso Museoum of Art

L U SA S S A B

Saul Bass is considered one of the most successful artists

Bass believed that his early formation as a designer and the

working in the industry of design. He created timeless icons

first work he produced during these years was fundamental for

for film posters, title sequences, album covers, and corporate

his mature conception of the graphic arts. He than began his

identities that still inspire and influence designers today. Bass

time in Hollywood, working as a designer for movie posters.

also devoted his life to creating corporate identities for major

Because of his success as a designer for the film industry, his

enterprises that still use his original designs to represent their

career took a whole different path by creating title sequences

companies. Early on, Bass demonstrated great artistic talent as

for some of the most prominent filmmakers in Hollywood. Saul

a student living in New York City. He was a designer for his

Bass was a prolific designer that worked in a variety of fields

school’s newspaper and began receiving his first commissions as

including the film industry and corporate design, as well as

a commercial designer soon after graduating from high school.

tailing on work for his own personal satisfaction and causes.

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Film Industry Saul Bass received his first major commission from producer Otto

Saul Bass, Anatomy of a Murder, 1959.

Preminger who saw great potential in his fresh vision to develop more simple film titles to capture the essence of an entire movie in a short sequence of images. Bass and Preminger began a partnership in which Bass designed many logos for movies, theater posters, advertisements and animated film titles. He introduced graphic design in film by reducing the message to simple pictographic images, using freely drawn, decorative letter forms combined with energetic typography or handwriting. His first break as a professional artist was the design for the film titles for Carmen Jones. Due to his success, Bass went on to create dozens of film posters and title credits, for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Exodus (1960).

There are many titles Saul Bass holds in his career. He created the most memorable movie posters and film titles of the time, capturing an entire film in a single, or just a couple of graphic images.

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Saul Bass, Exodus, 1960.

Saul Bass, Carmen Jones, 1954.

Saul Bass, Vertigo, 1958.

Saul Bass, The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955.

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Corporate Id ent it i es Saul Bass also designed corporate identities, creating work that was made to last. From iconic logos for supermarkets and the kitchen industry to airplanes and nonprofit organizations, Bass made a name for himself. His first major identity campaign was for Lawry’s Seasoning & Food Company. Saul Bass took the company’s main product, Seasoned Salt, and made it standout. Continental Airlines was Bass’s first corporate identity commission from an airline. He captured the basic power thrust notion of the jet engine, as well as the airflow patterns of high-speed flight. Continental Airlines was one of Bass’s most comprehensive identity programs. Following Continental Airlines, he also designed the United Airlines logo.

He then followed with design for one of the largest corporations in the world, Bell Systems. For this client, Bass designed an

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Saul Bass, Lawry’s Seasoning & Food Company, 1959

enormous range of items and equipment— from letterheads to delivery vehicles, and from packaging and wallpaper for public offices to uniforms designed by his wife Elaine with whom he collaborated for over 40 years. After The Bell commission, the Bass Advertising Agency was regarded as one of the offices most capable of dealing with the largest and most complex corporate identity programs. Bass had the unique ability to understand what the client wanted to communicate to the public. In order to design a corporate identity, Bass’s basic approach was to grasp the essence of what a company was about in order to represent it to the public. He then went on to work for some of the largest and most high profile companies in the world like AT&T and Minolta. By this time, his small office had grown into a much larger enterprise.

Saul Bass, Logos, 1959 – 1078.

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Independent Work Although Bass had the amazing opportunity to work with large corporate companies and filmmakers, he also took time to be a freelance graphic designer. His freelance works are often referred as his “personal Sau Bass, Special Olympics, 1989

handwriting”. He designed for film festivals and cultural institutions, commissions that were voluntarily executed and without payment. He approached each work by looking at images and developing ideas on his own terms. He had the opportunity to create designs for organizations he believed in, like Human Rights Watch and the Special Olympics.

Some of his pro-bono posters include 10th Chicago International Film Festival (1974) and Human Rights Watch Film Festival (1974). Bass also designed album covers as part of coordinated publicity campaigns for many films. His first album cover design was for the album Sportsman soundtrack. To Bass’s surprise Frank Sinatra, the composer and star of The Man with the Golden Arm admired Bass’s work due to his ability to capture entire films and albums in a few strokes. Therefore, he trusted Bass with the design of his album cover for Poems of Color in

Saul Bass, 20th Chicago International Film Festival, 1984

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which the designer offered his own poem of color, line and pattern.

Saul Bass, Poems of Colors, 1956.

Quartet by Barber Shop Harmony and for the 1950 Cyrano de Bergerac

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Legacy Throughout his career, Bass developed a visual language that set him apart for his unique way of re-defining complex ideas using simple, yet effective imagery. His ideas still influence contemporary designers for the efficiency of capturing the essence of films, organizations, events and products. Young & Rubicam is a creative firm that is strongly influenced by Saul Bass in their Santa Casa de São Paulo Brazil campaign promoting blood donation. Their design portrays handwriting as its typeface and simple imagery, a style that Saul Bass implemented in commercial design. His legacy also inspired Hollywood title sequences like those for Catch Me as You Can (2002). Bass’s work also inspired Ty Mattson when designing the animated title sequences and posters for the Show time series Dexter. Mattson captured the major visual elements in the shows first season using a style similar to Saul Bass’s paper cut-out posters. Finally, the designer of the poster and film sequence for the Spike Lee film Clockers was obviously influenced by Saul Bass’s poster for Anatomy of a Murder, as it uses the same black, disjointed, silhouetted body that appears in the original design by Bass. Thus, it is clear to see that Bass’s legacy lives on. His work still has an impact in the way graphic design is developed today. Martin Scorsese credited him as a genius with Saul Bass, The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955.

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the ability to translate thoughts into images “Thinking made visible”.

Kuntzel & Deygas, Title sequences: Catch Me if You Can, 2002.

Ty Mattson, title sequence Dexter, 2005.

Spike Lee, Clockers, 1995.

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