Graphic Design King of Cinema

Saul Bass was an Oscar awarding wining American graphic designer who brought to film some of the most striking, original and captivating title sequences and film posters. He was a visionary. In the time where the opening and ending credits where just as important as the film, Saul Bass stepped outside the box and created masterpieces. In his 40 year career he worked with some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.

His most famous visuals are the animated paper cut out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho. 

Bass became widely known in the film industry after creating the title sequence for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The film is about a jazz musician's struggle to overcome his heroin addiction, a taboo subject in the mid-1950s. Bass decided to create an innovative title sequence to match the film's controversial subject. He chose the arm as the central image, as it is a strong image relating to heroin addiction. The titles featured an animated, white on black paper cut-out arm of a heroin addict. As he hoped, it caused quite a sensation.

My first Bass experience was in the Hitchcock films. The title sequences are bold, intriguing, thought provoking and most importantly memorable. While working with Hitchcock, Bass invented a new type of kinetic typography (moving text) for North by Northwest, Vertigo and Psycho. It was this type of innovative and revolutionary work that made him such a respected graphic designer. Before this creative genius title sequences in the 1950s, were generally stale, separate from the movie, and generally projected onto the cinema curtains, the curtains only raised right before the first scene of the movie.

Bass once described his main goal for his title sequences as being to ‘’try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story.” He wanted the audience to see familiarity in the unfamiliar. In his words, " making the ordinary extraordinary."

With each film he became more creative and daring. He went from cut out animation to fully animated mini-movies ( the epilogue of Around the World in 80 Days) to live action sequences. His last title sequence was Martin Scorsese's Casino. 

Bass’s title sequences featured new and innovative methods of production and spectacular graphic design. His legacy can be seen in modern day opening title sequences that evoke a mood or theme. It is most prevalent in a film like Catch Me If You Can or the TV series, Mad Men. The Bass influence can not be mistaken.

Saul Bass took something that is seemly uninteresting and turn into something stunning and bewildering. He took his God given talent to see shapes, colors and text in unusual ways to create masterpieces that have stood the test of time. His collection of works is inspiring, striking and impressive.

Happy 93rd Anniversary Birthday, Saul Bass. Thank you for grabbing hold of our imaginations and expanding our minds to the beauty and importance of graphic design.

Below is a video of Google's Doodle tribute to Saul Bass. In it you'll see examples of his works, such as  Psycho, The Man with the Golden Arm, Spartacus, West Side Story, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Anatomy of Murder, Ocean's 11 and Around the World in 80 Days.