Week One - Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an experienced graphic designer who was best recognized for his motion picture title sequences. Saul initially studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan and later attended Brooklyn College. Bass died at the age of seventy-five and during his forty year career, he worked for legendary filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. Bass became extensively known for his title sequence design of the 1955 film “Man with the Golden Arm”. The commonly known 1960 film “Psycho” had its picture title designed by Bass as well. The picture title sequence in "Psycho" used disjointed texts that raced together and apart.

Saul Bass also designed many movie posters, including the poster for west Side Story.Aside from motion picture titles, Bass also created the sixth AT&T Bell System logo as well as other titles for this company.In regards to film making, Bass claimed that he assisted with the directing of the highlight scene of Psycho, (the shower-murder sequence). The claim made by bass was disputed by others, both on and offset because Alfred Hitchcock was perceived as the primary filmmaker in charge of all artistic decisions. However, Hitchcock had asked Bass to create storyboards for the shower-murder scene; therefore, Bass received a credit as “Pictorial Consultant” as well as “Title Designer”.

In 1964, Bass directed a film titled The Searching Eye later made a short documentary film called Why Man Creates, which won an Academy Award in 1968. In 1974, he made his only feature lengths science-fiction film titled Phase IV.

There are two quotes by Saul Bass that I found quite intriguing, and they are as follows:

"Design is thinking made visual."

"There is nothing glamorous in what I do. I'm a working man. Perhaps I'm luckier than most in that I receive considerable satisfaction from doing useful work which I, and sometimes others, think is good."