SAULbass

krislam anne chin

With every great design lies a great designer; Saul Bass was responsible with many great designs during his time. He designed many of the famous logos that we have now and

was also well known for his undeniably good taste in designing a movie title poster.

However, not all designers’ start off as great designers, Bass was born in May 8, 1920 in New York City. He studied at the Art Stu-dents League in Manhattan. After gradu-ating he began his career in Hollywood

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saul bass

During the same time in Hollywood

he collaborated with !lmmaker

Otto Preminger to design a !lm post-

er for his 1954 !lm, Carmen Jones. Prem-

inger was abso-lutely stunned with Bass’ work

and granted Bass the op-

tion of working on a sequence for the entire !lm. Bass found

that the opportunity that was at hand was too hard to give up so he created movie titles, the opening, & even the closing credits of the movie, he found that he was destined to show the audience a new

way of showing a movie.

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carmen jones poster

After his

collaboration with Preminger, he became widely known especially for his title

sequence for Preminger’s 1955, The Man with the Golden Arm. The subject of the movie was a jazz musician battle to over come his heroin addiction. Bass designed the title sequence that matched the

subject of the !lm. He decided to use an arm as the central image, which is obviously related to the

heroin addiction. As Bass expected it caused a controversy as well as a sensation to viewers.

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the man with the golden arm poster

In this design it

seems as if Bass was trying to create a sense of chill to the

viewers. Bass specialized in vector art when it came down

to his design, as well as the one he designed for The Man

with the Golden Arm. What I noticed about his work is that

it’s not perfect, but it stays balanced. For example, his work

for The Man with the Golden Arm, is very simple yet very

balanced. You have the center image what seems to me

an arm, but

the arm isn’t exactly in propor-

tion, it’s all bent up in a weird shape, maybe for the reason

of the heroin addiction that the movie was built around.

The arm is then bordered with boxes with uneven sizes.

The uneven sizes of the boxes makes the image look like

it’s about to fall apart, maybe Bass’ intentions were to

show that an addiction such as heroin would make your

life fall apart, which

is what is being illustrated here. Each of the

boxes are so constrained with each other that it looks like

if one was to be knocked over, the entire deign would fall

right out of the frame.

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Bass also

designed a memorable title

sequenced using kinetic typography, kinetic

typography is a technical named for “moving text”, it is an

animation technique mixing motion and text, it is com-

monly used to convey a particular idea or emotion. Bass

used this technique for both the open and closing for

Alfred Hitchcocks, North by Northwest & Vertigo. The use

of Kinetic Typography was so innovative and revolution-

ary that it made Bass a revered graphic designer. Later he

designed with Martin Scorsese and moved away from his

old techniques and moved onto computerized titles, where

he then produced a title sequence for Casino.

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Carmen Jones (1954)

The Man with the

Golden Arm (1955)

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Around the World in Eighty

Days (1956)

Storm Center (1956)

Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

Vertigo (1958)

Anatomy of a Murder (1958)

The Big Country (1958)

North by Northwest (1959)

Psycho (1960)

Spartacus (1960)

Exodus (1960)

Advise and Consent (1960)

Ocean’s Eleven (1960)

West Side Story (1961)

Walk on the Wild Side (1962)

The Victors (1963)

Nine Hours to Rama (1963)

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad

World (1963)

The Cardinal (1963)

In Harm’s Way (1965)

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

Grand Prix (1966)

Seconds (1966)

Broadcast News (1987)

Big (1988)

The War of the Roses (1989)

Goodfellas (1990)

Cape Fear (1991)

Doc Hollywood (1991)

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Casino (1995).

For 40 years of his career he design tityle sequnces for the following films:

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Out of the many different designs

designed for I had my top 3 that caught my eye or was just an incredible

favorite is the design poster for Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, just like The Man with the Golden Arm, Bass’ intention here was

to create a movie

-

design works because of the different proportions of the body that look cut up. The body is set up as if it was found on a crime scene, the generic cliché of the body position of a dead body, however there is a slight differ-ence with the body because it looks so static whereas a crime scene outline of body had a superhero outline to it, nonetheless, he communicated very well that the body is indeed, a dead body. The body also had awkward sizes from the torso, to the head, and even the arms, but that was Bass’ way of designing. Again, with most of his vector art designs, the pieces of the body seem so close

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Anatomy of a Murder Poster

together, that if one piece was to be removed the entire design would just fall apart. It sends off a very fragile rhythm throughout the piece, even with the yellow box slightly hanging over the red

box, the tension throughout the piece allows

the viewer to stick onto the design. The ty-pography of the poster also works very well, especially on the top portion of the design on the theme of a murder case because of it’s rigid edges and different sizes, it reminds me of a ran-som note with the bits and pieces off the maga-zine. The typography on the bottom part of the poster works really well because it balances out the top portion of the poster, since the top part of the poster is so messy and out of proportion the simplicity of the white outline type helps balance it out. Overall this poster had to be one of my favorites, I admire vector art and his work here is very successful.

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called, Bonjour Tristesse

I liked about this poster is how he used very little color; he used about 4 different colors all of which compliment each other. I found that the poster works really well because unlike other movie posters that show a face, this movie poster does show a face, but not a human face, rather a sketch which just makes the poster all around more interesting. Bass gain wins the idea of relating the movie to the poster by the heart in the woman’s eye, it is more apparent to the viewers that the movie perhaps has something to do with love, and with her crying it’s no doubt that the movie is a drama. The only thing that I found unsuccessful about the poster is the hierarchy of

-tion, although the title is in white while the rest of the text is

have worked better is if the size of the other text content was smaller. It’s also confusing because after the title, the credit line keeps going with two more names. It would have worked better if all the names were above the title, or maybe even below it. Having the title in a middle of a name pool only con-fuses the viewer. Other than the bottom half the poster, the idea and execution of the poster worked out really well.

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bonjour tristesse poster

My third

choice is yet again another

Way, the movie is an

American war movie. What

I admire the most about

this poster is the use of

the negative space. At

point looks like an airplane

of some sort, but when

you really get into it, you’ll

-

sition, almost like a dictator point. The image works well

on the black background. I found the arm to be again, un-

proportioned, but that is the Bass way of design. The two

stripes, the star and the little section of black communicates

very well that the arm is obviously some sort of power. Near

the bottom of the poster there is another image of the same

very distracting because you already made on message on

the top and then your repeating yourself on the bottom, why

would you need that? Maybe if the poster was

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in harms way poster

for a product I would understand the use of repetition,

but for a movie, I don’t see why you would need it. It

looks like a cry for attention and it’s not very

appealing. I would also change the position of the title

of the movie, to somewhere on top, or maybe it can stay

on the bottom but in a bigger font size. The size that it

is in now is way too tiny, usually with movie posters the

the movie title or vice versa. There I see the image, then

a big white space, the repetition of the logo and then

the title. The audience would then be confused as to

it really does work well, the simple illustration communi-

cates very well and it is highly effective.

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Along with his successful movie titles, he created

his own studio as a freelance graphic designer,

or “commercial artist” as they would have called

it back then. He called his studio “Saul Bass &

Associates”, later in the years his second wife,

Elaine Makatura, joins him. What seems to be

so interesting about Bass is that he made movie

titles, really good ones, but then he also made a

a director, he then wins an Oscar for his short

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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) Geffen Records (1980) Minami Sports (1991) Minolta (1978) Rockwell International (1968) Security First National Bank (1966)

United Airlines (1974) United Way (1972) Warner Books (1963) Warner Communications (1972) Wesson Oil (1964) YWCA (1988).

Bass was responsible for many different logos such as:

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the revolution of AT&T's logo

His most memorable logos were 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 on, 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.

Back in 1969 it wasn’t called AT&T yet, it was called “Bell Telephone” hence the bell. It wasn’t until later when the logo completely changed from a bell to a globe, which

ever logo made for AT&T was a basic illustration with a bell inside a circle. On the circle it reads “bell system” then to the right of the circle reads “AT&T and Associated Com-

reminds me of clipart, but back in the early 1900s, I guess it was okay.PAGE THIRTEEN

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the revolution of AT&T's logo

all the other information such as “bell system” on the bell & “and Associated Companies”, Bass decided to just leave the bell inside the circle but just leaving it as an outline. At the bottom of the logo reads “AT&T”, because what is a logo without it’s brand? The third version of the logo completely changed the face of AT&T when the company detached from the “bell system”, the logo that was once a bell is now a globe. The globe consists of individual bars which is in-dicated for it’s capability to receive signal all across the world. (That’s of course if you’re not under a parking structure, inside a store, inside your car, basically, anywhere that doesn’t have a roof above your head) The many different bars is obvious, the more bars you get on your phone, the better signal. The logo worked very well because the bars on the left side of the globe became thicker, it gave it a highlight, which created a three-dimensional feel to it.

Now the fourth logo was just like the third logo, only this time they really pushed it with the three-dimensional feel. They added the drop shadow along with embossing the actual circle itself. You’ll also notice that the number of bars decreased, it was probably to help enhance the dimensions of it. The last logo, and the most currently logo, is completely a different step away from the boring embossing-drop shadow cliché design. The globe is no longer static, it is an actual sphere, what is absolutely incredible about the logo is that, they don’t just show the front of the globe, but the blue is also transparent and helps the audience view right though it so they can see the other stripes around the globe, showing that it really does have sides to it. The typography also changed from big black bold san serifs to a more thin but still san serif ty-pography, which kind of gives it a more modern feel. The duration

idea, it’s just unfortunate that their service isn’t as

amazing as their logo. PAGE FIFTEEN

issues with the money that they fundraise through charity with good hearts. When asked to make the logo Saul Bass did not hesitate, by creating such a logo, United Way of America never looked so good. The logo was so well put together, it looks great when you look at it in unity or if you break it down to it’s key elements. The colors that were used in this logo give it a playful feel to it. Bass used primary colors, and usually

when you think of primary colors you think of kindergarten books,

or the basic colors of a crayola set when given to a young child, and

when you think of a young child you think of caring for them, which

is pretty much what the foundation is about. The illustration also

embraces the caring of the charity with the child inside the hand with

a big ray of sunshine around adds more of a comfort feel to it. By also

surrounding the logo in its entirety in blue, it sends off an emotion

that makes you feel comfortable in a way of hospitality care. Blue is usually the most common color found in hospitals, and hospitals are usually looked at as a good place to heal in, and by surrounding the warm colors with blue it just ties the entire logo together. The hand gesture that Bass added on the bottom that holds the child in place is probably the most successful part of the logo, what better way to show comfort and support then a helping hand?

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united ways logo

//Usually when I think of Saul Bass I think of vec-tored images and unproptioned arms, but after creating very many logos , Bass picked up yet another sequential design movement for his day and age. Within the last two logos they both shared one thing in common and that is the linear design aspect of the logos. If you take a look

bars of 2 different colors, blue and red, and in between lies several white lines, again like I said, he had a thing for white lines. The blue and red colors stood for the whole National or United colors, pretty much any airline that has the word “United”, “America” & “National” has those colors. If you haven’t noticed already there is something interesting about this logo. It’s pretty obvious, but some

stood for “United” is formed in the logo. You wouldn’t au-tomatically think that there would be a “U” because there was 4 lines, but it’s there.

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united airline logo

The Girl Scouts of America are widely known for their yummy Girl Scout cookies. But not many people know that Saul Bass was the designer of their logo. Of course, I would of guessed it. Why? Again Saul Bass creates an-other logo that consists of linear design. The Girl Scout logo is one of my favorite logos that he’s created. The

environmental friendly, and nothing tickles me pink other than being green or the color green, and seeing that they are girl scouts, thy probably have to deal with the wild life

color. The logo itself is somewhat an optical illusion, at

glance it’s actually three girls, all of which look exactly the same, but what I found admirable of Bass is the diversity that girl scouts have to offer and he got to that point fairly quickly when he put two white silhouettes then a darker one in the middle. Perhaps it was his way of showing how diverse the organization was. The logo was very successful at the time it was made which was 1978, and is still mak-ing a successful outbreak for those who are in the orga-nization now. The logo even works when it’s in reversed colors and in black and white. Now that’s what I call a successful logo.

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girl scouts logo

Bass wasn’t always about movie titles and sequences, although it was his specialty, in 1984 Bass took part in a collaboration with 12 other well known designers, Laurie Raskin ; Arnold Schwartzman ; Keith Bright; Marvin Rubin; John Von Ham-mersveld; Charles White Ill; Ken Parkhurst; Rod Dyer; Debo-rah Sussman; James Cross; and Don Weller to design a poster to help promote the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Each designer was assigned the task to design a poster under the sport and/or task they were assigned to do. Another designer by the name of Robert Rauschenberg collected all their post-

called ,”The star in motion.” The poster consisted of about 4 visible stars with 15 different posters embedded inside of

the idea that it’s in motion and it’s for the Olympics ties in real-ly well. It’s really interesting to see what the logo used to look like back in the 80s, we’re all very used to the small illustration for the Olympics such as our most recent Olympic games held in Beijing in 2008, the logo was very simple and in one color but so very powerful, here we have an entire collage of differ-ent sports combined into one. It’s amazing how in the history of design, simple and modern designs become to be the new hype. In whatever case or time the Olympics was held, Rob-ert Rauschenberg and the other designers including Saul Bass himself did an excellent job.

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During the last few years of his life, Bass continued

working on his commercial designs, it was then he

was persuaded to o create the titles for James Brooks’

Broadcast News and then for Penny Marshall’s 1988

Big. In 1990, Bass found a new collaborator in Martin

Scorsese who had grown up with and loved his 1950s

and 1960s titles. Bass was also responsible for 1990s

Goodfellas and 1991s Cape Fear. He also created a

sequence of blossoming rose petals for Scorcese’s

1993s The Age of Innocence. His last work was also for

Scorcese for the movie “Casino”.

In 1996 Saul Bass leaves the world behind with his -ers back in his day, but echoes throughout history and inspires present day young designers. Present day mov-ies such as “Catch me if you can” & “The Incredibles”

work, Bass would have been proud. His New York Times obituary hailed him as “the minimalist auteur who put a genre…and elevated it into an art.”

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saul bass & his work

bibliography

Internet

Saul Bass on the Web http://saulbass.tv/ Design Museum http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass AIGA http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-saulbass Saul Bass Biography http://www.saul-bass.com/

YouTube (for interview) http://www.youtube.com

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books

Meggs, Philip. “6 chapters in design : Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka, Henryk Tomaszewski”. San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 1997.

ARticles

“Died, Saul Bass.” Time 6 May 1996: 27. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 12 Aug. 2010.

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