Saul BASS

In his work, Bass did not just create doodles that became . He worked to understand the culture both current and desired, as well as the essence and objective of a company's competitive strategy and its brands. In many cases, such as after a merger or takeover, the new corporate identity was an opportunity to establish a new sense of shared identity that might lessen or avoid political in-fighting or lack of direction. He did not just think of corporate identity as a that goes on a letterhead, the sides of trucks, on product packaging and on uniforms and stickers This would be entirely missing the point, or more accurately, missing an opportunity to rigorously analyse and think about what the company stands for and what it needs to mean to employees and customers. He had a specific and strict process of analysis that is a perfect illustration of how designers must blend the left and right brains as they develop the best solution.

Read his own words - CLICK HERE Almost as soon as movies started, it was well known that the best way to lure your audience into cinemas was to use the faces of your leading cast in the middle of your advertising (e.g Casablanca). The bigger the star, the more the appeal. So it must have taken a brave boardroom decision for the producers of the 1955 film The Man with the Golden Arm to approve Saul Bass’ revolutionary poster for the film. Bass had pushed aside images of Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker in favour of a grotesquely bent arm reaching boldly through a higgledy-piggledy font in which the title appeared.

The poster kicked off a revolution in movie poster design (albeit one in which only the boldest of film executives would dare take part). Bass was hired to design dozens of film posters and quite often a title sequence to match the print (you can check out a swag of his title sequences on YouTube). Amongst these designs were the likes of Saint Joan, Vertigo, , Psycho and The Shining. With such an appetite for cutting-edge design, it’s not hard to see why Saul Bass got along with the likes of Kubrick and Hitchcock.

Sometimes his work was summarily rejected – didn’t think Bass’ poster for Schindler’s List did his film any justice. Others thought it so good that they plagiarised it – for example, Clockers 1995. The studio replaced its original Clockers poster (centre) after Saul Bass, the designer of the Anatomy of a Murder poster (left), threatened to sue for copyright infringement. Looking at Bass’ early posters, it is necessary to draw a link to Russian revolutionary graphic design; bold contrasts between solid blocks of colour, jarring angular shapes, sporadic rule-breaking in regard to composition.

Examples of Russian Constructivist posters:

Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under a Hungarian graphic designer Gyorgy Kepes, who introduced him to Russian Constructivism and to the Bauhaus style (particularly the work of László Moholy-Nagy) from which Bass took much inspiration - as can be seen in much of his works. The image below is the movie poster Bass designed for the film Vertigo in 1958, and next to that is Hand and Geometry designed by Gyorgy Kepes in 1939. The work was a photogram with a faint image of a hand behind various linear patterns and a red dot. MORE RECENT WORK INFLUENCED BY SAUL BASS

The influence of graphic designer Saul Bass (1920-1996) on pop culture can be seen virtually everywhere today. But arguably the work he’s best known for is his numerous movie posters and title sequences. Bass’ impressive body of work, spanning forty years from the mid-1950s to his last film, 1995′s Casino, is a revered and often (lovingly) imitated legacy.

Kyle Cooper has admitted that Saul Bass has heavily influenced his work with his own film titles. You can see the similarities in their work. For example their style of always having something moving in the sequence, to keep the audiences attention. They also move the names in the credits around, so the audience is always looking in a direction, which again keeps their attention. This style of action, of something always being on the screen is what makes them so successful and how Saul Bass has influenced Kyle Cooper and his generation. RANGO This is an excellent example of an “advancement of style” rather than plagiarism

Kyle Cooper has directed over 150 film title sequences, and has been credited with "almost single- handedly revitalising the main-title sequence as an art form".

Kyle COOPER INTERVIEW: Part 1 Kyle COOPER INTERVIEW: Part 2 Interviews include excellent information about the design process and typography "Love and Other Drugs” Poster Design - Saul Bass Influenced piece I wanted to create a poster that really focused on Saul Bass's 'The Man with a Golden Arm' design. So I looked though various movies that could support this kind of style with the hands. In the end I decided to choose Love and Other Drugs because it had an easy to follow colour scheme, and the idea of hands symbolising addiction as well as love could prove to be a powerful image. Jordan YATES

MORE INFORMATION FROM THE INTERNET

Saul Bass: the man who changed graphic design Saul Bass might be the single most accomplished graphic designer in history - working in the mid 20th century, when the importance of graphic design was just on the upswing

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SAUL BASS Originally we were going to do a post with lots of words and lovely pictures about the late great graphic designer and film maker Saul Bass. However while searching the world wide web for his work we noticed a lot of Saul inspired work, from a Birkenhead library poster to a re imagined cover design of the Grand theft auto game. Some of the pictures we’ve picked out are professional work and others are done just for fun. Either way it’s clear to see that the Saul Bass influence lives on.

Saul Bass Inspired Sequences In summary, it is very clear that the work of Saul Bass is very influential. The question still remains - are designers who use this style simply ripping it off? The argument will always be there and it is a fine line between an advancement of a style and plagiarism.

MoMA, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to Celebrate Saul Bass Includes a selection of movie posters

1977 HALL OF FAME

Sometimes it appears that Saul Bass is interested in almost everything

Saul Bas s LOGO DESIGN: Then and Now

The average lifespan of a Saul Bass logo is 34 years

Saul Bass – Advice to design Students on YouTube “Learn to draw! If you don't, you're gonna live your life getting around and trying to compensate for that.”