Designer, Film-maker, legend
Saul Bass, was an influential graphic designer/ artist, best known for his movie poster designs. Bass created some of the most iconic designs for posters in design history, under the ‘Swiss Style’. However, a lot of his work could be seen under the ‘modernist’ movement. Due to the amount of negative space and use of simple geometric shapes.
Born in Bronx, New York City, 1920. Bass would first study and graduate
James Monroe High school. Upon graduation, he would eventually attend Art Students League,
located in Manhattan, studying under his soon mentor, Gyogry Kepes.
Student Becomes the Master
Gyorgy Kepes, born in 1906, Hungary, moved to America in 1937 after leaving Berlin due to the war. By 1944 he would attend Brookly College, teaching night class, where Saul Bass would be found.
Bass’s work would then go on to be influenced by Kepes which drew on a variety of different ‘modern’ influences, including Matisse's cut-outs, De Stijl, Russian Constructivism, and eventually, the Bauhaus.
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Baby Steps
First significant design; Carmen Jones, 1954, Saul Bass
By 1952 Saul Bass would begin to set up his very own graphic design practice in Los
Angeles, California. It was called ‘Saul Bass & Associates’. His practice would begin work by
designing posters for movies, some of which became so renowned to make such an impact in today’s
world of design. This practice is where Saul Bass would begin his transition into movie
sequences.
Bass would go on to create these poster designs in a very minimalistic style. Most of the features within his designs would be what highlighted the movie it was representing. For example, the highlight for the movie ‘Man with the golden arm’, was of course, the arm. Which was not only used for the poster but would also be the main feature of that movie sequence down the line.
Logo Design
Despite his reputation, Bass’s most well-known and popular work was his title sequences and poster designs. However, Bass would also be recognized from his logo designs for a brief period of time. Some of his logo creations would go on to create iconic corporate logos such as:
Although his Logo design career was short lived, it still made an impact, so much so that some may consider his skills would have just been as strong as fellow designer, Paul Rand. The reason for this is due to how some of his designs could have been influenced by Rand and his work. For example, the design from Rand’s IBM logo and Saul Bass’s AT&T logo:
The first AT&T logo (1983), designed by Saul Bass
Pioneer of Movie Title Sequences
"I happened to be working on the symbols for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones and The Man with The Golden Arm, and at some point, Otto and I just looked at each other and said, “Why not make it move?”."
When ‘The Man with The Golden Arm’ opened in New York in 1952, Bass featured an animated paper cut-out arm in the film title sequence which had a ‘sensational’ effect on the audience. The symbol or the arm was shown on the marquee, as it was an accurate synthesis of the film in the ad campaign. Bass was able to add it into the movie sequence successfully as it included the same achieved features from the static poster but on a larger screen, simply adding motion and sound to it.
Saul Bass would go on to design the sequence as a series of different abstract patterns, using white rectangles (mostly), which would appear on a dark or black background. This colour palette choice was made to convey the movies ‘Intensity and subject matter’. When bass was creating the movie sequence, he came up for a meaning for every feature and movement that can be used to hint or used to resonate with what may happen in the film. Aside from the colours, the lines featured were made in reference to a stabbing motion, which in Bass’s words ‘To represent the drug addiction of the film’. Another feature that was mentioned or the most significant was the arm. This was inspired by the arm of Bass’s art director, Art Goodman. The arm was designed to represent a distorted, disconnected, detachment from a body.
"Kinetic typography"
What is Kinetic typography?
Also known as text animation. Kinetic typography is a design technique that uses animation and motion to convey emotion. Using specific elements to create movement and visual interest using text. Once created Saul Bass would base his creations on the thought of ‘enlightening the audience’ through the use of his movie sequences and invoking their emotions.
Now to discuss who invented Kinetic Photography. Thats correct, Saul Bass was the
creator and father of Kinetic Photography. Bass would invent this new type of design technique
through his work on Alfred Hitchcock’s films, North by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), and
Psycho (1960). The style was created with the intention to convey the emotions and visual
interest of the audience. Such as:
(Below are a couple of GIF’s featuring some title sequences that were created by others, using Saul Bass as their inspiration. Clicking on the GIF’s will open a new tab that will bring you to that movies IMDB page.)
The movie sequences that Saul Bass created would go on to make such an impact in the design and movie industry with future film sequences created in a similar design, such as:
A lot of movie title sequences now a days all have their own takes and styles, but most of which can all be linked to Saul Bass in some form. The examples previously shown usually all featured quick cuts, plane colours, geometric shapes, etc. All of which are traits that Bass used in his movie sequences themselves.
Ingenuity of Seuqences!
How did Saul Bass come across these skills?
Gyorgy Kepes, Bass’s mentor would be the person to introduce him to a couple of art movements. All of which Bass would somehow implement into his work. A lot of Bass’s movie sequences seemed to feature the use of Matisse’s cut-outs, which were also featured in his movie poster designs, such as The Man with the Golden Arm.
As previously stated, a lot of Saul Bass’s work is used with very minimal and flat colours. Most
of which featured the colour or shades of red, such as yellow, orange, brown, etc. Some or most
of his movie sequence would usually always begin with a dark or black background partnered up
with light or white text/ abstract images. The text would then fade or change into further movie
sequences or other content. The reason this could be his attempt to achieve some sort of visual
impact or the attention of the audience.
The Famous Conclusion!
Upon completing my research of who Saul Bass is, his life, his work, his impact and his influences. I have come to the result that I do believe Bass could be highly considered as the ‘Father’ of movie title sequence designs, hence becoming the ‘Pioneer’. Even with the opinions of others with the community of art or not he can still be considered as one of the most inspirable persons around, when it comes to not only movie sequences but also poster and logo design.
Following the previous entry, the work Saul Bass produced, taking full advantage of his creative prowess and any other existing material he may have at hand. With his movie title sequences, I believe he became the unofficial pioneer of this sourly from what others and myself may have seen when researching about him, not only from what he created but also the impact his creations made both then and now. The reason I believe this is the possibility of what we may be receiving now without his work being produced. What i mean by this is the movie sequences we get now all have vast similarities, ties or straight one to one overlays of Bass’s work, and without his sequences we may not have successful or satisfying movie sequences we have now.
Overall, from the evidence that was gathered, Saul Bass could be highly considered as ‘The Pioneer of Movie Sequences’ due to the impact of his work that made for the movie and the audience. As previously stated, Saul Bass created his movie sequences in a way to convey emotion, impact and meaning behind it all, wither it is related to the movie or the audience, what others as well as myself believe to be what made his work so successful. The reason I believe this is due to how Bass seen the movie sequences as the intro or the beginning of the movie which was also key to begin setting the scene or mood of that movie. For example, the sequence into the movie ‘Anatomy of a Muder’, always gave off a mystery type of feel when playing but would always express or show the ‘Dead body’ of a character, which is what the movie based around, making it an easy transition for the movie to begin.