SAUL BASS (1920-1996) was perhaps best known for his innovative movie title sequence designs with Hitchcock and Scorsese, Bass’s work also includes movie posters and logo designs for the likes of AT&T and United Airlines. Even before he made his cinematic debut, Bass was a celebrated graphic designer. Born in the Bronx district of New York in 1920 to an emigré furrier and his wife, he was a creative child who drew constantly. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under Gyorgy Kepes, an Hungarian graphic designer who had worked with László Moholy-Nagy in 1930s Berlin and fled with him to the US. Kepes introduced Bass to Moholy’s Bauhaus style and to Russian Constructivism. After apprenticeships with Manhattan design firms, Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer or “commercial artist” as they were called. Chafing at the creative constraints imposed on him in New York, he moved to Los Angeles in 1946.
After freelancing, he opened his own studio in 1950 working mostly in advertising until Preminger invited him to design the poster for his 1954 movie, Carmen Jones. Impressed by the result, Preminger asked Bass to create the film’s title sequence too.His work was ground breaking and his style unique.
Despite the fact that his more recognisable designs include movie posters from the fifties such as Vertigo and The Man with the Golden Arm, they remain relevant and influential today. His use of imagery is bold and simplistic with a limited pallet and I could imagine it being used in its original form today, which is perhaps why I find it so interesting.
All of Bass’s posters had a distinctive style. After his first film project Carmen Jones, he frequently collaborated with Otto Preminger as well as with Alfred Hitchcock and others. His work spanned five decades and inspired numerous other designers.
1950s:
Carmen Jones (1954) The Man With the Golden Arm (1955) Edge of the City (1956) Storm Center (1956) Love in the Afternoon (1957) Saint Joan (1957) Bonjour Tristesse (1958) Vertigo (1958) Anatomy of a Murder (1959) North by Northwest (1959) The Cardinal (1959)
1960s:
Exodus (1960) The Magnificent Seven (design not used) (1960) One, Two, Three (1961) West Side Story (1961) Advise & Consent (1962) In Harm’s Way (1964) Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) The Firemen’s Ball (1967) The Two of Us (1967) Why Man Creates (1968)
1970s: Such Good Friends (1971) Rosebud (1975) Bass on Titles (1977) Brothers (1977) Notes on the Popular Arts (1977) The Human Factor (1979)
1980s: The Shining (1980) Very Happy Alexander (1980) The Solar Film (1981) Unused poster designs The Children’s Hour / Infamous (1961) Nine Hours to Rama (1962) Grand Prix (1966) Seconds (1966) The Fixer (1968) The White Crow (unfinished movie) (1990) Schindler’s List (1993)
He received a unintentionally backhanded tribute in 1995, when Spike Lee’s film Clockers was promoted by a poster that was strikingly similar to Bass’s 1959 work for Preminger’s film Anatomy of a Murder. Sims claimed that it was made as an homage, but Bass regarded it as theft.[2] The cover art for the White Stripes’ single The Hardest Button to Button is clearly inspired by the Bass poster for Man With the Golden Arm. Bass was responsible for some of the best-remembered, most iconic logos in North America, including both the Bell Telephone logo (1969) and successor AT&T globe (1983). Other well-known designs were *Continental Airlines (1968), Dixie (1969) and *United Way (1972). Later, he would produce logos for a number of Japanese companies as well. He also designed the Student Academy Award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[1]
Selected logos by Saul Bass and respective dates (note that links shown point to articles on the entities themselves, and not necessarily to the logos): Avery International (unknown) Celanese (1965) Continental Airlines (1968) Dixie (1969) Frontier Airlines (1981) Fuller Paints (unknown) Girl Scouts of the USA (1978) Japan Energy Corporation (1993) Kibun Foods (1964) Kose Cosmetics (1959) Lawry’s Foods (1959) Minami Sports (1991) Minolta (1978) Rockwell International (1968) Security First National Bank (1966) Security Pacific Bank (unknown) United Airlines (1974) United Way (1972) Warner Books (1963) Warner Communications (1972) Wesson Oil (1964) YWCA (1988)
Bass became notorious in the industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The subject of the film was a jazz musician’s struggle to overcome his heroin addiction, a taboo subject in the mid 50′s. Bass decided to create a controversial title sequence. He chose the arm as the central image, as the arm is a strong image relating to drug addiction. The titles featured an animated, black paper cut-out arm of a heroin addict. As he expected, it caused quite a sensation. For Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective, memorable title sequences for North by Northwest, Vertigo, working with John Whitney, and Psycho. It was this kind of innovative, revolutionary work that made Bass a revered graphic designer. His later work with Martin Scorsese saw him move away from the optical techniques that he had pioneered and move into computerised titles, from which he produced the title sequence for Casino.
He had been designing title sequences for 40 years before his death in 1996, from films as diverse as Spartacus (film), The Victors (film), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) to Casino (1995). He also designed title sequences for films such as Goodfellas (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991), Cape Fear (1991) and The Age of Innocence (1993), all of which feature new and innovative methods of production and startling graphic design.
http://www.designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bass
http://www.notcoming.com/saulbass/index2.php
http://www.commarts.com/CA/feapion_d/bass/
