Saul Bass: Man with the Golden Titles

Editors note: The video posted here was compiled by Ian Albinson and posted on the blog, The Art of The Title in celebration of the release of the book “Saul Bass: A Life In Film & Design.”

While Saul Bass (1920-1996) was undoubtedly one of the most influential graphic designers of the Twentieth Century, he is best known for revolutionizing the discipline of film title design. Throughout Bass’s career he has worked with many prestigious directors: Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese.¹

Born in the Bronx in 1920, Bass was a creative child and eventually went on to study at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College.¹ Bass worked as a freelance designer in New York City until 1946 when he moved to Los Angeles in search of greater artistic freedom.¹

Bass began his film work in the mid-1950s, first working with Otto Preminger on Carmen Jones.² In 1955, “Preminger again called on Bass to work on The Man With The Golden Arm, for which Bass created the famous jagged arm design, suggesting the jarring and disjointed existence of a drug addict… Bass, along with a small number of other 1950s designers such as Paul Rand and Erik Nitsche, operated against cluttered imagery and towards geometric designs using angular shapes and primary color schemes.”³

During this time Bass was responsible for designing titles for The Seven Year Itch, Around the World in 80 Days and Bonjour Tristesse. He also created titles for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and North by Northwest. He partnered with Hitchcock again in 1960, providing not only the title design for Psycho; this time Hitchcock asked Bass to work on the film production as well, including Janet Leigh’s infamous shower scene.¹

During “the 1960s, Bass’s genius extended to building corporate identities for some of the biggest companies in the USA.” ³  Among the many organizations that Bass developed logos for were AT&T, Quaker Oats, United Airlines, Minolta and Warner Communications. In 1968 Bass took his turn behind the camera to direct “a series of shorts culminating in 1968’s Oscar-winning Why Man Creates.”¹

Bass’s film career enjoyed revitalization in the late 1980s and 1990s, when a new generation of film directors became interested in his work. Bass’s projects from this period include Big, Broadcast News, Goodfellas, Casino and The Age of Innocence.¹

Bass died in 1996, but his influence can still be seen in current advertising and in movies and television programs such as American Movie Channel’s Mad Men.

References

1. Design Museum, (n.d).  Saul Bass, Graphic Designer (1920-1996). http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass
2. IMDB, (2011). Saul Bass (1920-1996). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000866/
3. Nourmand, T. (2000). Saul Bass. Patek
   Philippe, Number 9, Spring / Summer. http://www.saul-bass.com/