was a prominent worked as a freelancer for se- American graphic designer veral advertising companies and of the twentieth-century. He agencies, including the illustrious largely designed motion pictu- Warner Bros. re title sequences, corporate He moved to , where and movie posters. He he pursued graphic designing as was a pioneer of the modern a commercial artist. title sequence designing. He During 1940’s he took up some enjoyed four decades of suc- Hollywood projects, which cessful career in his lifetime, involved the print work for biography winning Academy Award for his promotional purposes. In fact, exquisite graphic designing. His he started up his own practice iconic title sequences appeared in 1952 and a few years later in the popular films, such as, established his private firm as The Man with the Golden Arm, Saul Bass & Associates. In 1954, Psycho and . Bass finally had his big break as On May 8, 1920, in Bronx, New he was York, Saul Bass was born in the offered a job by the filmmaker household of Eastern European to design a po- Jewish immigrants. He attended ster for Carmen Jones. the James Monroe High Scho- His work left a remarkable ol from where he earned his impression on Preminger, who graduation. In 1936, he received availed his expertise yet again a fellowship to the Art Students for his film’s title sequence. League in Manhattan. He then With the opportunity, came the went on to study at Brooklyn realization that the title College, attending night classes sequence can not only be served with a famous Hungarian-born as mere static credits but it can designer, György Kepes. Upon enhance the watching completion of his studies, he experience of the audience.1

“What can I tell you? I love the lady. I love her for who she is, and I love her for what she does. When your wife is very talented, very smart and very sen- sitive to the nature of such a relationship, it’s very easy… I’m lucky in more ways than one.”

Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 382

Elaine worked for 40 years and drawing them, frame alongside Saul Bass, a graphic by frame, on the sidewalk to designer, title designer, and entertain the other children in filmmaker whom she married in the neighbourhood. Her talents 1961. Together, they developed won her admission to the New many projects for directors such York High School of music and as and Danny art at the age of twelve, but DeVito. She is one of the main she was unable to attend due designers who helped to ele- to the difficulty of combinating vate the short film and the title her school schedule with that of sequence to an art form. singing professionally with her Seven years younger than Saul, sisters. Similar to the Andrews Elaine’s route to working in Sisters, they san gas the Belmont design and film was even more Sisters (their agent felt “Makatu- circuitous than his. The youn- ra” sounded too ethnic). gest child of Hungarian immi- The group began in vaudeville grants, she come from larger, when Elaine was twelve. She poorer, but more musical New was lead singer and soloist, and York family than Saul. Like him, recordings made when she was she showed early promise at fourteen to eighteen reveal a art and exercised her cinematic surprisingly mature voice singing

How Elaine Makatura Makatura Elaine How Bass Elaine become imagination by creating stories swing with touches of Billie.

3 , London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 22 Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design , in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, clear planfor my future”. music andartbuthadno sing onmy own. Iloved but was far too shy to have loved to continue lly for six years. I would been doingprofessiona and Ihadlost what Ihad “I was eighteen years old get married. Elaine recalled: ended theolder sisters left to spot, butsoonafter the war and enjoyed aregular radio group sanginservice clubs During World War II,the ELAINEanything me.” to name ‘Saul bass’ didn’t mean Seven Year Itch muchbutthe enjoyed the credits for The looking for an assistant. Ihad told methat Saul bass was someone when challenging looking for something more lled: “after abouta year I was at Records. Capitol She reca job inthedesigndepartment Soon thereafter she found a there permanently in1954. Los Angeles in1947,setting houses. She first moved to ideas for several fashion ches and working updesign fashion renderings andsket- fashion industry, producing New York ready-to-wear Elaine went to work inthe - - 5 Once in the office, Elaine found herself developing skills and interests that had lain dormant as well as ones she didn’t know she possessed: “I knew I could draw well but never thought that I could contribute to make film titles or short films. The more my ideas were appreciated by Saul and others, and the more they worked out in practice, the more confident I became about putting them forward” By 1959 Saul was delegating important tasks to elain. When he attended the Word Design Conference in Japan in 1960, for example, Elaine was left in char- ge of producing and directing the Spartacus title sequence. The following year, she and Saul were married. After the birth of their children, Jennifer in 1964 and Jeffry in 1967, she con- centrated on motherhood and filmmaking – short film as well as title sequences.

Elaine and Saul, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, 6 Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 230

Many people saw Saul and Elaine as soulmates. At first one noticed the differences between them, but the way they com- plemented each other and the balance of their personal and professional relationships soon became apparent. Their close- ness was rooted in similarities and shared interests as well as the joining of yin and yang. She was soft-spoken, serene, more retiring and happiest out of the public arena; he was voluble, energetic and gregarious, with a strong, passionate voice and hugely expressive gestures. Yet when they first met they already shared an intellectual intensity, similar aesthetic sensibilities and views about art and design. Each was extremely disciplined, with a profound respect for hard work, and at the centre was the excitement of creativity and thrill of working together. Indeed, throughout and behind the work, theirs was a great love story. (2)

Elaine and Saul, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 23 7 Saul and Elaine began to make short films in the early 1960s. For almost a decade, they had been creating titles and internal sequences for some of the most creative directors in the film indus- try. While each movie had presented different problems to solve, one condition had remained constant – the movie belonged to someone else. Their next step as filmmakers was to strike out their own.(3) It would be difficult to image a closer collaboration than the work Saul and Elaine did together on the short films. While their official credits shifted from film to film, their partnership was so reciprocal that the fil should be considered joint work. Discussing their filmmaking, Elaine stated:

“One of the wonderful things about working together is that there is no conflict because we are both totally

A creative partnership creative A committed to the project. Like parents to a chills, you both want the best for the project. Working as a dup, you sha- re the good and the bad.” Saul and Elaine at work, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 297

London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 257 p. 2011, Publishing, King Lurence London, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, & Film in Life A Bass: Saul

With his larger personality, Saul tinued to collaborate on every took more active role in fin- project. In fact, the short films ding projects and pushing them offered the couple more flexibi- forward, but thereafter their lity than was possible with the roles were fluid and depended high-profile corporate design on their schedules. Elaine often project that the Bass office took directed individual sequen- on in this period. Both Elaine ces when Saul was away, and and Saul had workspaces at participated as equal partner in home and equipped the office Bass, Jennifer Kirkham, Pat in family, his and Saul the tasks of producing, writing, with playpens and high chairs cinematography and editing. when the children were small. Elaine had a knack for finding Later, they were allowed to play simple solutions to daunting freely in the studio, borrowing technical problems and always pushpins and typewriters for played a leading role in choosing their own art projects and the music and working with the making towers and forts out of computer, though Saul often plastic film cores. During filming, provided curious vocal effects Saul and Elaine not only brought like the caveman voices in Why Jennifer and Jeffry to the set, Man Creates (1968). but put them to work in small Even after their children were roles in Notes on the Popular born (Jennifer in 1964 and Jeffry Arts (1977), in 1967), Elaine and Saul con- (1980) and Quest (1983).

10 “I always felt a full part- to put a new idea into

ner. Saul never dismissed words. Don’t get me Elaine Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film anything I said out of wrong and imagine we hands. I am quieter but always thought along the & Design can be forceful when I feel same lines. Of course we’d something will work well. say, ‘No. Sorry, but I don’t , London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 231 It’s hard to describe how think that will work – it’s we worked. When you are far too simple,’ or ‘I don’t so close to someone and think that will come across know them so well, you as funny.’ Then, if the often don’t need to other thought it has merit, complete a sentence they’d keep pushing the because they will know idea. Not forcing the issue what you mean; one will but saying, ‘let’s think this grasp something immedia- one through more. Let’s go tely when the other starts back and look at its gain.’” 12

Elaine and Saul, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 241 “I’m in the extraordinary position where my life and my work are so interesting and rich that the normal distinction simply don’t exist. Elaine and the kids are deeply involved in my work. And that has created a marvellous bond between us.” , Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011

“Elaine is the only person fully imaginative contri- whose artistic judgment bution she makes. And, and sense of appropriate- of course, she is far more ness I completely trust. She musically gifted than I is an idea person who also am. Our interactions are comes up with imaginati- always very lively, very ve ways of making those probing. It’s as though ideas happen, sometimes we’re climbing a mountain after I’ve said, ‘great idea together. There’s always a

Saul Bass: A Life in Film & in Film Life A Bass: Saul but there’s no way you can lot of testing, lots of di- pull that off.’ It’s often a scussion about the right simple solution. She sees route. Everything is open things very clearly, has for discussion. Elaine is an aversion to waste and not an aggressive, con- , London, excess (she is a true child of frontational person. She Saul and Elaine. being interviewed at a film festival, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design Depression in that), and an is much more polite than I Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 249 ability to cut through ex- am but if she feels strongly , London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 231 King Publishing, Lurence , London, traneous matter. But that’s about something she will Design Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Bass, Jennifer Kirkham, in Pat Bass, Saul just a part of the wonderful- stick to her guns.”

13 14 Although Saul and Elaine Bass collaborated closely for more than 40 years and Saul himself often spoke of Elaine and used the pronoun "we" when interviewed alone, she is not widely acknowled- ged as co-creator of these important cinematic works. Indeed, even contemporary critics of the 60s generally focused on Saul alone. For instance, in a 1964 Hollywood Reporter review of the films the Basses made for the New York World’s Fair, it was noted that “both films were conceived and designed by Elaine and Saul bass,” but thereafter the journalist referred only to “he,” “Bass” and “a master”. In fact, Elaine often directed individual sequences and participated as equal partner in the tasks of producing, writing, cinematography, and editing, and always played a leading role in choo- sing the music and working with the composer, but is still often ignored or seen as an addendum by filmmakers and journalists. (4)

15 , when speaking about Scorsese's collaboration with the Basses, has said:

"Saul Bass was undoubtedly the greatest title sequence maker. Brilliant – just brilliant. He has been a 'hero' for years. But, and it's a big but, I could never do what Scorsese does – give up control of the opening of my film to someone elwwse, not even Saul Bass – I guess I should say Saul and Elaine Bass.”

Quentin Tarantino, in Elaine Makatura Bass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Makatu- ra_Bass

16 Saul and Elaine, Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 263

Saul about collaborating with Elaine: “It’s a total collaboration… we do everything toge- ther, so we’re a lock-step throughout the process. She’s remarkable. What can I tell you? I love the lady. I love her for who she is, and I love her for what she does. When your wife is very talented, very smart and very sensitive to the nature of such a relationship, it’s very easy… I’m lucky in more ways than one.”

Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Lurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 382

17 IN THE MOOD “My first reflection about what a title can do is to set the mood and the core of the movie’s story to express the plot somewhat metaphorically. I saw the title as a public airing way, so that when the movie actually started, viewers would already have felt an emotional resonance with it.”

Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Lauren- ce King Publishing, 2011

Saul brought a Modernist desi- Indeed, his title sequences so gn sensibility to film titles and effectively captured and disin- revolutioned not only what stalled the essence of the films they looked like, but also how to come that they came to be they were thought about. The regarded as part and parcel status of cedit sequences was of the film itself. Saul, often in low; so low that in many cine- collaboration with his wife Elai- mas they rana s the undercur- ne, would design more than fi- tain was raised, amid audience fty opening sequences for such chatter and popcorn mun- film sas Anatomy of murder, ching. It was, according to Saul vertigo, psycho, spartacus and “a time when the film hadn’t Casino. In doing si, he would begun yet”. Saul believed that a transform our understanding film, like a symphony, deserved of what a title sequence could a mood-setting overture, and be. He was so well known as a used ambiguity, layering and graphic designer, many people texture as well as startlighly assumed that Saul’s role in compact imagery to reshaoe creating title sequences was the time before the film proper limited to storyboard and typo- began. He explained, “my po- graphy. Instead, in most cases, sition was that the film begins Saul wastaking on the role with the first frame and that that normally would be divi- the film should be doing a job ded among the film’s director, 5

Inventions and title’s and title’s Inventions art of form new at that point. producer and editor.

19 These types of collaboration were new: so much so that they gave rise to the credit line of “visual consultant”. In 1955, Otto Preminger ave Saul the go-ahead to design the type of unified adevertising that he had been sching to do. The result was the impressive campaign fro The man with th golden arm. By 1958, for a typical film, Saul offered the studios not only the main and credit titles but also a trademark, TV trailer, screen trailer, po- sters (four sizes), trade ads (up to six per film),

20 Saul Bass at work in his editing studio; he made the opening title sequences for many movies

the result was the impressive reluctant to stake their marke- campaign fro The man with ting campaigns on Saul’s bold th golden arm. By 1958, for a designs. In all his works, Saul typical film, Saul offered the said that he “looked for the studios not only the main and simple idea.” credit titles but also a trade- But Saul’s work mark, TV trailer, screen trailer, complex ideas into radical- posters (four sizes), trade ads ly simple forms that offered (up to six per film), these types audiences a set of clues, a sort of collaboration were new: so of hermeneutic key to deeper much so that they gave rise to meanings under the surface of the credit line of “visual con- the movie. sultant”. newspaper ads (up to Saul described the ideal title as twenty per film), album cover having “a simplicity which also and New York subway car card. has a certain ambiguity and a But even when he was paid certain mataphysical implica- in full for an adversiting cam- tion that makes that simplicity paign, there was no guarantee vital. If it’s simple simple, it’s that all or any of it would be boring. used. With his work in title sequen- Despite his international re- ces, Saul would elevate the putation as a graphic designer, opening of Hollywood films to Saul found himself in the odd the status of an art form. position of being highly sought He found himself in the cu- after for film titles and trade rious position of having to advertising, but not for posters, analyze and define something the most public film adverti- he had reinvented as he went sing. Large amounts of money aong. Never a fan of fixed were at sake if a film bombed, categories or absolute and film studios were often statements,

21 The Saul Bass Poster Archive, http://www.saulbassposterarchive.com

Saul came up with a series of open-ended titles that expanded the time period covered by notions, keys to understanding the role his the film. Saul wrote “As I moved along and be- titles could play in the work of the film. “In the gan to do more and more titles, I began to see mood” was the phrase Saul used to describe the other opportunities and other ways in which the primary function of the title sequence, the point titles could serve the film. A title can act as a he started from. prologue. It can actually tell you about the time Thus, the title sequences is a sort of passage, before the film. Sometimes it actually become a transitional vehicle that helps the audience part of the story. cross from the world outside the theater into Saul saw his role as working for the director: the world of the film. In “the man with the gol- “Ithink the creating of a title, which is obviously den arm”, the titles created a mood of intense a small appendage on the film, has to be ap- anxiety. proached very connscientiously and with some In “seconds” the mood is horror; in “bonjpur sense of responsibility within the film’s total tristesse” is bittersweet regret, and in “it’s a mad, framework- because it is, after all, the tail of the mad, mad, mad world” one of good cheer and dog and the tail does not the dog wag. “The old-fashioned fun. script is only the bones. I must know how he is The time before” was Saul’s way of describing going to flesh it out, what his point-of-view is.6

22 A look at his best works fied andtransformed into the appearance of beingpetri from abody, theblackarmhas As well asbeingdisconnected implicit inthe(dis)figuration. shooting up,althoughthey are image from thehars realities of stract form helpeddistance the disjointed arm. The semi-ab arresting image of adistorted, sensationalism. He created an the film without to resorting red thedrama andintensity of to create asymbol that captu challenge facing Saul was how in mid-century America. The topic drug addiction,ataboo Algren’s powerful novel about delines when adapting Nelson defied Production Codegui In 1954,Oreminger again (Otto Preminger 1955) The man with thegolden arm - - - - Saul was creating thetitle. the musicat thesametimeas le, Bernstein compose hadto of theextramely tight schedu gambling anddrugs.Because drummer with apenchant for main character, adownbeat encapsulate themoodof the intensity, andthedisjunctures white heighten thestrident trast between theblackand into thefilm’s symbol. Con- terns before finally coalescing sappear andform abstract pat- ground, white bars appear, di and set againstablackback stein’s drivingjazz-like score, Accompanied by Elmer Bern dern artonthemovie screen. compelling. Here was mo- He titlesequences was equally transformated by hisaddiction. Sinatra character inthefilmis something else,justasthe 7 - - - - 23 “Otto liked my idea for the film but he thought it should be a series of non-moving images, stills, just like the individual frames in the storyboard. Of course I thought it had to move. we disagree. I got hot. […] Time went by. I calmed down. I began to think ‘Gee, I blew it’. […] Static images. Sharp cuts. A sort of staccato kinetic movement. I began to warm up to the ideo. I began to like it! The phone rang! It was Otto’s sento- rian voice: ‘Hallo, Saul- you know, I’ve been thinking. You are rrright, it should move!’ […] We were off again. […] Finally, he broke in: ‘Stop! I insist! And you will see how wrrrong you are!’ So he was right. And I was right.”

Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, pg. 22

24 Saul’s pun on anatomy aligns entirety is to realize how Saul the dissection of a human body excelled at subtle variation. with the dissection of a body The title sequence is one of of evidence in a court of law. Saul’s most simple and most The abstraction distances the successful, with its seemingly viewer while the figuration pulls effortless integration of text, in the opposite direction. Here, image and sound. The symbol as elsewhere in his work, we forms and falls apart in synchro- see Saul’s fascination with the nization with the Duke Ellington

Anatomy of a murder of Anatomy “primitive”; each piece looks as if score, while the bold white layer

(Otto Preminger, 1959) Preminger, (Otto it has been cut out by an untu- of contrast and syncopation. tored hand. The hand lettering in Saul described it thus; “Working various sizes and forms signals closely within the framework of inconcistency; every verson of a fine contemporary jazz score, every letter is different, just as the title sequence had a stac- every version of events is diffe- cato and fragmented style. The rent in this film about a lawyer various pieces of the segmen- who comes to doubt his client’s ted figure quickly form its total story. The symbol appeared on a configuration after which arms, wide range of items, from invita- legs, head, body and hands pop tions and lobby cards to a record on and off in counterpoint with album and posters. Once again, the appearance of the various to see the range in its entirety credits…[..]” 8

25 One of Hitchcock’s most admired films “Vertigo” confounded contemporary audiences. Saul’s title sequence and advertising designs, by

Vertigo Vertigo contrast, immediately began to win awards and have always been among the most admired in his repertoire. In the titles, Saul sought “to express the mood of this film about love and obsessing” and to capture “ the very particular state of dise- quilibrium associated with vertigo” He explained, “Here is a woman made into what a man wants her to burn. She is put together piece by piece. I

(, 1958) Hitchcock, (Alfred tried to suggest something of this, and also of the fragmented mind of Julie (Kim Novak), by my shi- fting images. The main poster also encapsualted the sensation of vertigo by having a couple sucked into a vortex. The slightly off-kilter, irregular capitals further

26 hint at the the vertiginous. The figures were drawn by Art Goodman, who recalled Saul specifyng and sketching out a black silhouette for the man and a lightoutline, like an apparition, for the woman of his obsessions. The title sequences opens with the camera explo- ring different parts of a woman’s face, coming to rest on her eye (an organ Saul thought the most vulnerable in the entire body). Then, from the depths of the eye and accompainied by shatterin- gly violent chords, the title of the film emerges. Spirling light patterns (Lissajous forms) emerge from the pupil as the music makes a vertiginous climb. Saul’s interest in spiralin Lissajous forms and other ways of notating light and vibrationa was part of a wider Modernist interest in bringing together cìscience and art.9

27 There were so many people to be credited in this movie extravaganza that Saul persuaded produ-

1956) cer-impresario Mike Todd and director Michael Anderson that the film would be best served by an epilogue. The result was a hilarious six-minute recapitolation, in animated form, of the preceding three hours. In order to retain audience attention after an already long film, Saul created amusing parodies of incidents from the movie as well as humorous caricatures of the main characters. Both film and epilogue were smash hits. Animator days (Michael Anderson, Anderson, (Michael days John Halas noted that “In spite of the fact that

Around the world in eighty in eighty world the Around the credit titles containing hundreds of artists’ and technicians’ names were placed at the tail end of the film… the audience not only stayed to see them all but applauded them, admiring the grephic invention and witty visual ideas.” http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/around-the-world-in-eighty-days

“The main thread of continuity is maintained by the bicycle and top-hatted clock, symbols of Passepartout, Phineas Fogg’s jack-of-all trades valet and the punctual, precise Phineas Fogg…,” he explained, adding, “The final sequence finds Phineas Fogg and Aouda (the Indian princess he rescue) colliding – the watch enlarges and opens revealing its inner works, which explode leaving a pulsating heart.”

Animator John Halas noted that “In spite of the fact that the credit titles containing hundreds of artists’ and technicians’ names were placed at the tail end of the film… the audience not only stayed to see them all but applauded them, admiring the grephic invention and witty visual ideas.”10

29 Hitchcock involved Saul from the earliest stage. They had meetings before writing began, and Saul received each section of the screenplay as it was

Psycho Psycho completed. For the titles, Saul aimed at a mood of dysfunction within a wider sense of order. Simple bars sugget clues cominh together without ever offering a solution: “Put these together and now you know something. Put another set of clues together and you know something else.” Bars of equal weight slide onto the screen in various patterns disturbed by irregularities of speed and

(Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Hitchcock, (Alfred lenght. Oppositions are strong: black and white; vertical and horizontal; short and long; on and off-kilter; on and off-screen. Part of each credit appear on different bars but are only legble when they are in alignment, another signal of disturbing uncertainities to come.11

30 In this delightfully light-hearted, slick and witty sequence, rectangle and square of bright mo- dern colors randomply pop out or slide into position on a black screen, eventually filling it. Credits and jokes are revealed in time to a tem- po as quirky as the random opening of boxes recalling magicians’ acts and popular TV game shows. There was no symbol for “the seven

(, 1955) Wilder, (Billy Years Itch”, but Saul played with the idea of an The seven years itch years seven The intch in the title sequence. He wanted to avoid literal or sensationalist graphics for this story of a middle-aged married man (Tom Ewell) lusting after his sexy neighbor (Marilyn Monroe) during a long hot New York summer. He and Wilder agreed that establishing a playful, upbeat mood would ensure the audience would be receptive to a comedy.12

31 “The epilogue is a recapitulation of the environment within which the film’s story takes place. Thus all the walls and surfa- ces are intimately explored. As the camera moves over these walls, fences, doors and signis, it discovers, among the graffiti on them, different credits. I had a lot of fun making those credits. Look out for SB & EM in a heart -that’s Elaine Makatura, of cour- se- we had just got engaged! And I put the credit ‘Music by Leonard Bernstein’ on a ‘No left turn’ sign. Figure that one out!”

Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, pg. 202

32 Saul was visual consultant on There, in the stylized language this musical, which retold Sha- of dance, the audence is intro- kespeare’s “Romeo and juliet” in duced to rival gangs, the Sharks an urban gang milieu. Saul and and the Jets, as they contest and Elaine created an unusual ope- defend their turf. Saul and Elaine ning sequences that accompa- laid out detailed storyboards nies Leonard Bernstein’s roman- and shot extensive test for this West side story side story West tic overture. Brilliant, saturated sequence on the streets of Los hues slowly change color over Angeles. It was ultimately filmed a dingle delicate drawing. The in New York by Jerome Robbins. image is indeterminate and The lengthy credits for West abstract, untili t dissolves into dide story were shifted to an the tip of the Manhattan skyline epilogue, because those for the and we understand what we Broadway musical as well as the have been gazing at all along. film had to be Saul was also responsible for incorporated. directing the superb aerial pho- This also gave viewers time to tography that followed -starting compose themselves after the (1961, Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise) & Robert Robbins Jerome (1961, high above the tall buildings and tragic climax. deep canyons of the city and Graphic designer, Bob Gill, still finally zooming down in one cites the sequence to students seamless take to the teeming as a “classic” example of title streets of New York City. design.13

33 2 Some years ago I was asked, “When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?” Back then I thought the answer I gave was funny. I said, “Saul Bass.” It was no joke.

King of Graphics, February 1st, 2012, http://www.cdispatch.com/

When Saul arrived in Los Angeles dream-like visual poetry. in 1946, the city was home to He told me, “I became aware some of the greatest avant- of… Cocteau, Maya Deren garde filmmakers in the world. and Kenneth Anger, all of the Oskar Fischinger, Maya Deren, experimental filmmakers. [Their Alexander Hammid, Kenneth films] were all terribly exciting, Anger and Curtis Harrington terribly upsetting and created a were among the many who great yearning in me to emulate put experimental filmmaking this, to do something that would on the map. The films they embrace this kind of daring… made subverted the rules It seemed to me like truly the of conventional commercial future… And that’s what I wanted moviemaking and instead were to do”. notable for their fascination with In this period, many of these movement, abstraction, light, filmmakers were trying thier hand metamorphosis, sensuality and at sponsored films, not only as a the self. way to pay the bills, but because By 1950. L.A. boasted at least – paradoxically – corporations five theaters that programmed often offered greater creative experimental films. The year Saul control than was possible with the arrived, Deren and Hammid’s film studios. Sponsored films date groundbreaking 1943 short, back to 1922, when the furrier Meshes of the Afternoon, was re- Revillon Frères sponsored Robert released. Saul loved its moody, Flaherty’s Nanook of the North. Context: experimental experimental Context: films and sponsored

35 During the 1930s, new Most of the big companies were government agencies produced in on the act, or thinking about documentaries about the plight it. The bigger the company, the of American agriculture and the more inclined it was to “soft-sell” promise of New Deal public work advertising that never mentioned projects, but it was not until a specific product, but instead put World War II that sponsored forward an image of the company films were made on a large as a benevolent patron of art and scale. Largely of a documentary, culture. educational and morale-boosting By the late 1950s, Wheaton nature, they paved the way for Galentine had directed the more adventurous sponsored strikingly imaginative Color and filmmaking in the postwar Texture in Aluminium (1956) for era, when such films as Bell , and IBM had commissioned Telephone’s Adventure in Telezonia Charles and Ray Eames to direct (1949) and General Electric’s A a film about computers. Francis is for Atom (1953) became an Thompson went from making important sector of the U.S. film independent art films such as NY, industry. NY (1957) to artistic sponsored By 1959, the number of short films such as To Be Alive! (1964, “business” films made was with Alexander Hammid) for 5,400, compared to 223 longer Johnson Wax, which was shown entertainment features. Articles at the same World’s Fair as Saul and books were written about and Elaine’s first films. By the them, and the journal Business time the federal government Screen promoted them. Seduced commissioned a multiscreen by claims of “1,000,000 new presentation on science for customers… from one little reel,” the Seattle World’s Fair, it was film was seen as the perfect thoroughly respectable for vehicle to convey everything from major institutions to commission the germ-killing powers of a new films of a type considered too cleaning product to the ideology experimental for mainstream of a nation. culture only a decade earlier.

36 Los Angeles, 1950, Daniel Strohl, https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2012/09/07/los-angeles-1950/ Sep 7th, 2012

37 The more imaginative sponsored filmmakers were often asked how they got a way with creating the types of films they did for the types of clients they had. For Saul, it was a question of winning the sponsor’s confidence. Saul and Elaine were fortunate that, once a concept was accepted, Saul’s powers of persuasions and the clarity of their proposals convinced company managers to grant them a remarkable degree of creative control. Saul’s friends Morton and Millie Goldsholl were among the first graphic designers in the U.S. to also make experimental films, sponsored films and television commercials. Morton Goldsholl chiared the Aspen International Design Conference in 1959, and shortly afterwards he and Saul collaborated on design projects for Kimberly-Clark. Saul also assisted the Goldsholls on a film, Faces and Fortunes, and in 1962 was asked to work on a film for CBS, Apples and Oranges.14

38 Saul Bass during the production of , 1968, https://www.oscars.org/videos-photos/saul-bass-celebration/?fid=37896, 2015

39 40 Saul Bass holding his Oscar award, 1968, http://www.news18.com/news/india/snaps- hot-when-saul-bass-won-an-oscar-607911. html, May 8th, 2013

Maybe you already had a fascination with Saul Bass’ celebrated movie title sequences, but you can round out your understanding of the man’s artistic sensibility by watching Why Man Creates, the animated film by Bass and his wife/ collaborator Elaine which won the 1968 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. An eight-part meditation on the nature of creativity, the film mixes animation and live action, using Bass’ advanced repertoire of optical techniques, to look at the issues surrounding how and why humans have, throughout the history of civilization, kept on making things. It begins with early hunters felling a beast and making a cave painting out of it. From that cave rises a tower built out of every major phase of human civilization: the wheel near the bottom, the pyramids somewhat higher up, the literal darkness of the Dark Ages as the camera rises higher still, ultimately capped by a heap of planes, trains, and automobiles. One wonders how Bass might, in an update, have stacked his representation of the internet atop of all this, but the sequence’s datedness costs it none of its virtuosity. : Saul Bass’ Oscar- Bass’ : Saul Man Creates Why Creativity look at winning animated

41 42 Some of v subsequent chapters, in their bold late-sixties “trippiness,” may strike you as more dated than virtuosic. But it would take a hardened viewer indeed not to crack a smile at Bass’ Pythonesque turn when a drawn hand flips open the tops of a series of unthinking partygoers’ heads, revealing the emptiness inside. In its 29 short minutes, the film also looks at the creative struggle in terms of the coarseness of evaluative crowds, the tendency of successful radical ideas to become self-perpetuating institutions, and how people just like things better when they have American flags on them. Its journey ends in an unexpected setting, amid the toil of agricultural and medical scientists who may pursue an idea for years only to find that it has no application. This note of frustration leads into a montage of sun, fire, statuary, the Sphinx, canvasses, and rockets. Assembled with Bass’ signature subtle visual complexity, it takes us from antiquity to modernity in a way only he could.15

43 THE EDIFICE FOOLING AROUND By using the metaphore of a construction, Bass In this section, Bass illustatesv how and when illustrates the history of mankind through the ideas come across. It’s kind of a spontaneous and inventions that have transformed the habits of the unconscious process. human being.

A PARABLE DIGRESSION In this part, Bass tells us a story about a little ball “Have you ever thought that radical ideas threaten that, bouncing higher than the others, disappears institutions, then become institutions and in turn in the sky, becoming a legend between the reject radical ideas which threaten institutions?” ordinary balls. “No”.

44 THE PROCESS JUDGEMENT Once the artist has found the idea, he must put it This section illustrates the moment the work into practice. This is a strenuous and sometimes comes into contact with the public. The audience’s tiresome part of the work. criticism is metaphorically compared to gunshots hurting the artist.

THE SEARCH THE MARK Scientists working on different subjects are inter- Then, why does Man create? There are many viewd. Through their experience, we learn that to reasons, but we can conclude that it’s a need, an understand any aspect of life, we need dedication impulse of human expression. and years of research.

45 “Learn to draw. If you don’t you’re going to live your life getting around that and trying to compensate for that. [...] You can’t get away with that, it’s a crippling absence [...] and the unfortunate thing is you can get by without it, and you can even get a job [...] but then, when you realize that you really wish you knew how to draw, it’s too late because you’ll never go back to school.”

Saul Bass- Advice to Design Students, February 12th 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7l0mIlzx_I

Saul used the term “personal period of years.16 handwriting” to refer to a certain Saul’s “personal handwriting” category of work, mostly posters, extended to many other areas, where he was free to create and ranging from photography and explore images and ideas on doodles to the collecting of his own terms. This work was artifacts and his involvement often for clients, such as films in the annual Aspen Design festivals or cultural institutions, Conference. who did not interfere, largely Saul spoke of “an emotional because the commissions were need for direct contact with a pro bono (carried out volountarily surface,” adding “I like to feel the and without payment), but also pencil’s abrasion, or the brush’s because they were grateful to slither. It’s where I started, and have a poster by Saul. Such what I need to come back to was also the case with work for periodically: a free and open area causes and organizations with of expression.” Well-sharpened whose aims Saul sympathized pencils and his favorite pens – for example Human Rights were among the few tools on his Watch or the Special Olympics. desk, always carefully placed near Looking at these posters, we a clean pad of paper. see Saul playing around with a Saul also took hundreds of theme, an idea, a form or palette; photographs, usually when sometimes over a very short travelling, as a sort of sketckbook period, and sometimes over a or diary of images. Personal handwriting Personal

46 For him, these “frozen moments” So too were the artifacts that were both document and source Saul and Elaine collected. of inspiration. Some were taken Originating from ancient or “pre- to capture an idea or an insight, industrial” societies, they were others to record an image, a new mostly Native American but also way of seeing an everyday object Pre-Columbian, African, Middle or as a study in light, texture and Eastern, Greek and Roman. To pattern. them, such objects were carriers An habitual doodler, Saul’s of myths and meanings: at once were mostly done while on knowable and unknowable, his telephone, on vacation or material yet mysterious. Saul during conferences. His doodles surrounded himself with them in included lettering and abstract his office and at home because forms, as well as sketches of he tought that, in addition to their people, places and imaginary intrinsic beauty, they brought “a landscapes. Many doodles special kind of mystery – a quality were done at the Aspen Design of the unknown that reaches the Conferences – of fellow board very deep and hidden place,” and members and speakers, from showed how, despite working Lou Dorfsman to Peter Reyner within particular traditions, Banham. Doodles aside, Aspen, conventions and forms, each was the debates and the people were unique. For him and Elaine, the all important sources of creative creators of these objects were energy for Saul. kindred spirits.17

47

“The ideal trademark is one that is pushed to its utmost limits in terms of abstraction and ambiguity, yet is still readable. Trademark are usually meta- phors of one kind of another. And are, in a certain sense, thinking made visible.” Saul Bass, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p.281

Corporate identity design is the observed that corporate identity creation of a distinct and unified systems are “the closest a giant visual identity for a company corporation can come to anthro- or institution, usually centering pomorphizing itself, to presen- on a trademark. According to ting a face, a personality.” Saul, Saul “The fundamental objective who created “faces” for more of altering the visual look and than fifty well-known companies, house mark for any corporation and as many again for lesser is to make the change faithfu- -known ones, understood this- lly represent the company, and just as he understood that new reflect the role ir plays in the identities lacked what he called environment. On the surface “the authority of existence.” that sounds simple. But, before They entered the marketplace you start changing anything, you with only their intrinsic visual have to clearly understand what qualities, acquiring currency you are changing, and why you through exposure, familiarity and are changing it.” Advertising co- people’s experiences of a com-

The great guru of guru of great The identity corporate pywriter Barbara Baer Capitman pany’s products or services.

49 Corporate identity design, as in developing a strongly rationa- we understand it today, dates list approach to corporate iden- back to the 1890s and 1900s, tity of work, Saul was possibly when architects and designers the most prolific designer in this became involved in the creation field over the period 1960-96, of new visual identities, mainly and one of the most influential. for large companies. In 1898, He went on to work for some of the American-owned film and the largest and most high-profile photographic business, Eastman companies in the world, including Kodak, commissioned a revised the Bell Telephone System, Uni- identity from British designer ted Airlines, AT&T and Minolta. George Walton prior to expan- Saul was also one of the first sion abroad. In cities as far apart U.S. designers to create house as Dublin, Moscow and Alexan- style manuals, those for Alcoa dria, the company’s shop fronts, and Celanese dating to 1963 retail interior and hoardings were and 1966 respectively. Given the designed in a bold and distinctive huge amounts of time and effort house style. put into large identity programs, The large, comprehensive cor- design manuals were a way to porate identity programs of the ensuring the work would remain postwar era are usually seen visually intact over the years and as beginning with Lester Beall’s across many applications. and related designs for Saul thought of manuals as part Connecticut General Life Insu- of an educational control system, rance Company (from 1956) and always with some flexibility built International Paper (1960). Also, in. He devised each manual “with at this time, began to an awareness that arbitrary rules update the image of IBM (from were less likely to be embraced, 1956), becoming more heavily than those for which reasons are involved in corporate identity clearly enunciated and rationa- design in the 1960s. lly presented. “we made each Saul entered the field in the early manual a persuasive document as to mid-1950s, before he began well as an instructional one”. his film identity work, but always As corporations grew in both size felt that his involvement with and complexity, so too did ma- large comprehensive programs nuals: those the Bass office crea- started with the 1959 Lawry’s ted for the Bell System in 1968 commission, closely followed by and Exxon in 1981 were both Alcoa (1963), Fuller Paints (1963), among the most comprehensive Hunt-Wesson (1964), Celanese of their day. The Bell commission (1966) and Continental (1967). itself was one of the largest ever Because Saul’s film work genera- undertaken by any designer and ted so much popular attentions, it therefore, by the late 1960s, the is easy for those not familiar with Bass office was regarded as one his early graphic work to overlook of the offices most capable of the fact that he was part of a dealing with the very largest and small group of American desig- most complex corporate identity ners who were instrumental programs. 18

50 Saul with his work, 1980, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p.283

Saul’s ability to listen what company executives wanted, or thought they wan- ted, and to their hopes and fears about their businesses, proved an important asset. He also had a rare capacity not only to come to a powerful and appro- priate image, but also to successfully convey the rationale behind the designs to his clients. He tooks great care to guide executives through each stage of the process, creating a rational structure within which visual forms could be evalua- ted in the order to bridge any potential divide. Saul was also able to make sense of huge amounts of information generated by depth studies of major corpo- rations. Lou Dorfsman was but one of many contemporaries who marveled at Saul’s ability to digest and synthesize it all.

Pat Kirkham, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, Corporate identity, p.282

51 79 Williams recalled, “In about vely than we’d expected but also 1960, Hunt Foods, the company that there were serious misun- I was working for, was trying to derstanding of its role in certain redesign the Wesson Oil Bott- areas. The study didn’t really go le - unsuccessfully, until I meet any place because it was too di- Saul. One of the people working fficult for us to move the gover- the phones with me at charity nment bureaucracy. telethon said that he was an ac- When I became head of the Client & Designer Client countant for a talented designer. Getty Trust, Saul was a logical I told him of our design problem choice to deal with issues of and he suggested we talk to how that body was perceived. Saul. “It was a surprisingly com- “It’s atypical of many artists, plex assignment. We wanted to but Saul starts with a system get away from the then standard approach, an effort to un- tube.shaped bottle and compete derstand the problem and the with the narrow-waisted bottle objective, then to articulate it, of a new product put out by and finally to translate what he’s Crisco. Sauls seemed to hit all learned into an artistic solution. the buttons, both functionally Often it turns out to be a di- and aesthetically. His design did fferent problem than the once exactly what we wanted it to do, that the client himself might and did it better. Then, when I articulate, but Saul really takes was heading Hunt Foods and you along with him through all we wanted a corporate symbol, the steps, the logic of what he’s along with a redesign of our doing, the process of elimina- label’s fundamentals, Saul once tion. There’s an elegance to again captured what we were his artistry, but also a simplicity trying to convey. “When i left and modesty..” Edward Block Hunt Foods to head the Gra- of AT&T, who described Saul duate School of Management at as “the great guru of corporate UCLA (University of California, identification and a delight to Los Angeles), I again commis- work with,” emphasized that Saul sioned Saul to create a symbol. was “not one of those who is up And when I entered government on a pedestal. I’ve worked with service and chaired the Securiti some who have a great tedious. es Exchange Commission (SEC), You want a letterhead and they I retained Saul to find out how want to build the Taj Mahal. the SEC was perceived by the Saul is very straightforward and public. His presentation, based practical in seeking solutions to on taped interviews, really ope- design problems. We knew of his ned our eyes. It wasn’t only that reputation in Hollywood, but he the SEC was seen more negati- was not at all a “Hollywood guy.”

53 He did great work for us without to… can I draw on that?” making a lot of waves. He did it “Sure,” I said. “Avery crossed out on time and he did it right.” the “International,” leaving only Saul turned down work when he “Avery”, and drew a circle around was not convinced of a commit- the design. “What do you think? ment to excellence on the part of Does that make it better?”. a prospective client or when his “I walked to the wall, looked at talents would benefit a product the design, removed the pushpin that he knew to be harmful to li- and held the design in my hand. ving things. He was not mild per- “Stan,” I said quietly, “when I was son by any means, but he could a kid my mother told me never to rein in his frustrations so long as argue with the boss. he left points under discussions So i asked her, even if he’s were valid ones and that his wrong? And she told me that opinions would be considered. when the boss was wrong, i was He was willing to concede certain really important to find a nice issues, but there was no com- way to let him know. Pause..” promise in terms of design. Saul Stan, you are wrong..” was always prepared to rethink “Everyone remained silent until a design, but refused to accept Avery spoke. “Well, Saul. What a CEO, group of executives or can i say? A long time ago I anyone else altering one. In 1975 learned that if a man goes to a Stanton Avery, the inventor of doctor he respects, and ignores the self-adhesive label, tried to his advice, he does so at his own do just that. Saul recalls, “I spent peril. So I think I will defer to months on the project, resear- your judgment.” “But I knew that ching the company and visiting Avery was still dissatisfied, and Avery Products facilities all over I understood why. Unlike other the world. Finally it came to the trademarks that had been around presentation. for years or decades, this one had I went through every alternative just been exposed to the light of and finally “unveiled” my choice day. “To allay Avery’s qualms, I (an “A” formed by links of a chain). did what I had sometimes done The room was silent, as everyone in such circumstances. I put waited for the boss’s response. the new icon on a small board, “Stan Avery, a tall patrician man together with several other we- of great intelligence and thou- ll-known marks, and asked Avery ghtfully demeanor, rose from his to display the card in his office seat, walked up to the design on in a prominent place where he the wall, and studied it closely. would see it every time he went “He took a fountain pen out of in or out. A week later, Avery his pocket and unscrew the cap. called me. He said, “the design is “Listen, Saul”, he said, “I hesitate beginning to grow on me.” 19

54 Saul enjoyed exceptionally good relationships with his clients. Although not all captains of big business shared his liberal out- look, they appreciated his professionalism, intelligence, integrity and good company, and often retained his services for many years. Lawry’s Seasoning & Food Company, for example, was a client for forty-seven years, and AT&T for more than twenty-eight. Harold Williams, “struck by Saul’s ability to understand and capture what I wanted to convey,” utilized Saul’s talents in one way or another for more than thirty-five years.

Pat Kirkham, in Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A life in Film & Design, London; Laurence King Publishing, 2011, Client and Designer, p.288

79

Saul’s first indentity In March 1961, after a fi- campaign was for Lawry’s Sea- ve-month search, the Aluminium soning & Food Company, based Company of America appointed in Los Angeles. It was founded Saul as graphic consultant with in the 1930s by Lawrence Frank a view to revamping the com- (known as L.L.), who first crea- pany’s public face. The company ted Lawry’s Seasoned Salt in his had already established itself as garage and opened the popular an industry leader, committed Lawry’s Prime Rib Restaurant. to imaginative development His son, Richard, who became programs and adventurous

The corporate identity corporate The president in the late 1950s, had advertising. The new symbol new ideas for expanding the was unveiled in January 1963. product line, which had barely Saul’s recommendation was to made a dent in the nation’s giant acknowledge the reality of the food seasonings industry, and situation by relinquishing the a conviction that the company old mark entirely and designing needed a new look. Its trade- a new one for the company’s mark, originally designed for the exclusive use. He devised a restaurant, consisted of an Engli- new emblem in which three sh gentleman in a top hat and diamonds combined to form a the name “Lawry’s” in an old-fas- highly stylized letter “A” that sug- hioned script. When Frank asked gested the sleek, modern preci- his in-house advertising manager sion of aluminium itself. In order for advice, the man suggested a to retain continuity, he incorpo- designer named Saul Bass. Saul’s rated the triangles of the original view was that, in a highly com- into the new symbol. It formed petitive marketing situation, this the bass of a corporate identity medium-sized company had to system, complete with its own stand out visually and establish typeface, design manuals and an itself as innovative. The new opening sequence for sponsored design was the launching pad for television programs. a profusion of new seasonings. “I suggested adopting the name Since the budget did not cover Alcoa, among other recommen- designs for all of these new dations, during a lunch with products, Saul incorporated a Lawrence Litchfield. At one point space in the label design for the he turned to me and said, “I name of each particular product. agree and understand the need Saul continued to design all the to do it, but I’m personally not company packaging thereafter, comfortable with it.” “As one as well as graphics for the res- might guess, Litchfield soon taurant branch of the business, developed a strong attachment from exterior signs to menus and to his company’s new name and doggy bags. With Saul’s help, the his stationery followed suit. The company established itself as a moral of the story: that corpo- market leader in the U.S., and rate identity can carry deep me- he acted as design consultant aning for those within a corpo- even after Liptons took over the ration, and it is not to be lightly company in the 1980s. changed or lightly shed.”

59 In the early 1960s, Hunt gree it becomes less industrial, Foods took over W.P. Fuller & and vice versa.” To find a unif- Company, one of the oldest ma- ying symbol, Saul took the initial nufactures of paint in the United letter of the corporate name States. Saul was asked to devise and gave it a literal twist, akin a new logo - an abstracted tin to the flourish of a calligrapher, of paint and color spectrum, fashioning an elegant yet robust which was used on everything symbol that looked as comfor- from brushes to stepladders to table on a boxcar loaded with calendars. In collaboration with chemicals as it did on the tag of exhibit designer Herb Rosenthal, a cocktail dress. When asked to Saul also created signage for fifty create a sculpture for the corpo- Fuller home decorating centers. ration’s New York headquarters, Sited outside one of the largest Saul translated the logo into stores, three sixty-foot totemic three-dimensional form. Shortly pylons of painted aluminum, afterwards, it was voted one known as the Towers of Color, of the year’s ten best pieces of rotated in synchronized motion environmental art in New York. like giant medieval pennants. In For the United Way, the addition, a thirty-four-foot-high aims of the identity program sculpture, made out of eigh- were to present the organization ty-one poles that ranged across as an up-to-date charity sensiti- the entire color spectrum, gave ve to the changing needs of so- the corporate headquarters a ciety and to create a single iden- more colorful public face. tity for an umbrella organization By 1965, when Saul was of more than 2,000 fundraising called in, the Celanese Corpo- groups across the United States. ration of America had evolved Saul described the tripartite logo from a domestic company as a “visual phrase” that sym- specializing in acetate fibers bolized human potential made (to which its well-established, possible by the existence of calligraphic trademark alluded) United Way; a figure stands on a to a billion-dollar multinational helping hand beneath a rainbow manufacturer of synthetic fas- of hope. In order to combat the hion fibers, chemicals and paints. considerable resistance to chan- Saul considered the existing ge within the organization, Saul trademark too old-fashioned and wrote a two-page spread for the feminine to represent a com- in-house magazine. He pointed pany that was a major player in out that, since the early 1960s, the world of paint and chemical most Fortune 100 companies industries. He realized it would had changed their images, and not be easy to create a logo that asked if United Way could afford would symbolize the diverse to lag behind the business product lines: “The two prongs community on which it relied for of the problem seemed in support. Most people agreed opposition to each other. To the that the design represented the degree a configuration becomes organization as “vibrant, exciting, more fashioney, so to that de- colorful, positive and changing.”

60 The brief Saul was business cards, infant seats, given by Continental Airlines overalls, pilot badges, napkins, was”heralding the future.” This airsickness bags and slippersox. energetic and growing company The Rockwell commis- had undergone eight changes of sion came about in 1968 after a image in the twenty-three years merger between North Ameri- before Saul was commissioned can Aviation, a high-technology in the 1965 to mastermind yet aerospace giant, and Rockwell another. The company opera- Standard, a high-volume auto- ted in the American West and motive components and consu- Southwest, but CEO Robert mer products manufacturer. Six planned to incorporate the The new corporation was Pacific Far East within five to ten composed of more than twenty years. The first recommendation entities, as diverse as Atomics was to abandon the existing International, several aviation golden bird logo. companies, a car parts manu- Saul explained, “Birds and bird-li- facturer and a loom company. ke forms are the most frequently To find a unifying symbol while used airlines symbols. They are retaining some degree of indivi- inherited from the early years dual identity for each subsidiary of the airline industry, when was no easy matter. flying like a bird was a wonderful The solution was a chameleon-li- notion indeed. But it’s hardly ke icon that managed to suggest the most appropriate symbol for thread for the loom company, a jet-age airline. The objective waves in an airstream for the of the new Continental symbol aircraft and rocket divisions, and, was to capture the basic power above all, signaled innovation, thrust notion of the jet engine, efficiency and a forward-thrus- as well as the airflow patterns of ting dynamism. It worked as well high-speed flight.” on the sides of buildings as it did The appropriateness of the on uniforms, vehicles, shipping design for future markets was cartons and the tails of Rockwell also a major consideration. For planes. Fears and rivalries ran so ticket offices, waiting areas and high, however, that Saul could company buildings, the color not get agreement on the name palette was China red, orange he recommended. and gold. According to Saul, this Even though most personnel combination triggered cultural agreed on the need for an inter- references to the Far East and national profile, former North flagged the warmth with which American Aviation staff felt left the company was, and hoped out by Saul’s recommendation to be, regarded. This was one of the parochial nature of the of Saul’s most comprehensive adopted compromise, North identity programs to date. By American Rockwell, and lived 1967, more than 456 items had to win another day. After three been designed or redesigned, years the symbol was so well including aircraft, baggage labels, seated that it seemed a small china, glassware, flight bags, matter to adopt the new name.

61 In 1968, when Saul was For Saul the necessity was clear: invited to update the corpora- a mark that would connect with te identity of the gargantuan the Quaker Oats Company’s Bell network of companies, it wholesome, whole-grain reputa- was the largest corporation in tion while also signaling its broad the world. It employed almost new product line. Another de- one million people and served sign firm had recommended re- one hundred million people placing the Quaker Man with an and served one hundred million abstract letter “Q” but Quaker’s telephone lines. It had yearly management was uneasy about sales approaching $100 billion such a radical change. Saul and a fleet of vehicles almost as agreed, “I reinforced their unea- large as that of the U.S. Army. siness. I felt that for them to give Although company stock sold up the accessibility, the huma- under the name AT&T, it and it’s nity and the particularity of the twenty-three operating compa- Quaker Man was a serious error. nies were better known as the I myself have always striven for Bell System. “Our work had two accessibility, more or less suc- primary goals. First, to unify the cessfully, and the Quaker Man disparate-looking Bell entities; was, after all, something we’d all second, to modernize the look grown up with something we’d of the corporation. With a more seen at breakfast all through contemporary look, the Bell our childhood and youth. It was System might convey what it an icon that conveyed feelings actually was, a source of state- of trust, integrity, comfort and of-the-art technology and an dedication to quality.” organization you’d like to work Warner Brothers was for.” The Bass office designed an established in 1923, and its his- enormous range of items and tory was, in large measure, the equipment, from letterheads to history of Hollywood’s golden vehicle livery, and from packa- era. The problem here was that ging and wallpaper for public the shield logo was recognized offices to uniforms designed by worldwide; if it was used to re- Elaine. The size and scope of the present the company as a whole, project can also be gauged by the public would continue to the creation of a dozen manuals perceive it as primarily a film stu- including one each for statio- dio. This was not, as Saul poin- nery, business forms, vehicles, ted out, an optimum image for a signage, color specifications and corporation heavily involved in telephone directories. areas more stable and predicta- When Quaker Oats ble than motion pictures. Saul turned to Saul for a new visual recommended an electronically identification in 1969, the com- inspired version of the letter “W”, pany was more than a century set within a shape suggestive of old and enjoyed and abundance a monitor or television screen, of goodwill. Company executi- that would convey the commu- ves, however, felt that its trade- nications focus while serving all mark no longer served its needs. the various divisions.

62 A seemingly insignifi- Girl Scouts of America grew out cant issue brought Saul one of of redesigning Girl Scouts cookie his biggest corporate identity boxes for the Burry division of commissions of the 1970s. Ed- Quaker. Saul regarded seventy ward Carlson, the relatively new million boxes mostly sold door chairman of United Air Lines, to door to homes across the disliked the random ways in country as a marvelous oppor- which stripes were places on the tunity to communicate the fun, company’s airplanes. Happily for self-reliance and self-realization Saul, Carlson mentioned it to a of scouting to parents and girls board member, Robert Stewart, alike. The cookie boxes were a who, as chairman of Quaker, had resounding success - so much worked closely with Saul on its so that the Girl Scouts subse- identity campaign. At the heart quently hired Saul to update of the new identity campaign the organization’s symbol. “He was the “flying U” logo based on interviewed us and talked width the first letter of the company the leadership, both volunteer name. Saul further simplified and staff, until he had absorbed United’s visual signature by the culture of the organization. changing the name to United He understood the importan- Airlines. Orange was added to ce of the trefoil and eagle pin the existing red and blue color - handed down from mother scheme, partly to distinguish it to daughter, sometimes over from the red, white, and blue of generations. He understood its other airlines and partly to add spiritual and emotional basis, a touch of warmth and punch. the very powerful ties we had Further impact came from using with the past. We wanted to a very bright white for the base carry the best of our traditions color. Saul called it “Cape Ca- into the future, and Saul unders- naveral white,” and stated, “We tood perfectly too. When he were saying in effect that the redesigned the pin he preserved plane should have the pristi- the trefoil, but now there were ne, advanced look that people profiles of three girls who were associate with the Apollo moon clearly of different races. When shots. They should look like pure you looked at that pin it said, projectiles.” “this is a contemporary program, The commission to mo- a diverse program, these girls are dernize the image of the facing the future.” 20

63 1 Saul Bass, http://www.famou- sgraphicdesigners.org/saul-bass, 2017 2 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, pp.22-23 3 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 230 4 Bibliografia Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 231 5 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 106-107 6 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 108-109 7 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 116 8 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 131 9 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Lon- don, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, p. 178 10 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 166 11 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi

64 shing, 2011, p. 183 12 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 154 13 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, pp. 199-200-201- 202 14 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 232 15 Colin Marshall, Why Man Creates: Saul Bass’ Oscar-Win- ning Animated Look at Creativity (1968), in Art, Film, History, April 27th 2012, http://www.opencul- ture.com/2012/04/saul_bass_ oscar-winning_animated_short_ reveals_iwhy_man_createsi.html 16 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 360 17 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 381 18 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 382 19 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, London, Laurence King Publi- shing, 2011, p. 384 20 Pat Kirkham, Jennifer Bass, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, Testo: Lato Light, 11 pt London, Laurence King Publi- Titoli: Lato Light Italic, 11 pt shing, 2011, p. 389 Numeri apici: Lato Bold, 11 pt

65 Design Verso Saul Bass Make the ordinary extraordinary School of Design Communication design A.Y 2016/17 C2 Design fundamentals - Studio Daniela Calabi Cristina Boeri Raffaella Bruno Teaching assistant Monica Fumagalli Silvia Mondello External collaborations Gabriella Frigerio Cristina Balbiano D’Aramanego Graphic design by Luisa Carmen Brancaccio Irene Colombo Martina Pisoni Angela Rocío Sanjuan Nossa Stampa SEF