Saul Bass
A pioneer of film title sequences
By Emily Ussher
Introduction
In the 1950s, Saul Bass became famous in the design world with some of his iconic and innovative designs for movie posters and motion picture title sequences for films like North by Northwest Psycho and The man with the golden arm. He was a pioneer of the modern title sequence designing. (Saul Bass | Biography, Designs and Facts, 2020).
Paul Bass was an accomplished American graphic designer, filmmaker, and logo designer – he designed timeless and iconic brand marks like, for example, Kleenex Logo – Designed in the 1980s, Continental Airlines Logo – Designed in 1967, Girl Scouts Logo – Designed in 1978, among others. Many still in effect to this day. He introduced a new art form with his imaginative film title sequences that conveyed the essence of a movie and prepared the audience for what they were about to see. (Bauer, 2020). His style was considered to be modern for his time. What made his work so unique was the rough and unpolished appearance of his work and his ability to transform ordinary objects into art. His style is thought invoking, storytelling, witty and ingenious (Rawsthorn, 2011). His approach to design was always purposeful, never mindless. He created his designs as a solution or a way to facilitate understanding. He would find potent, graphic symbols to apply as a summary for the film. Bass believed that it is possible for a modernist not to require a visually complex and convoluted piece. Instead, arriving at a single visual essence could be more effective. (McG 1996)
Life
Saul Bass was born on May the 8th of 1920 in the Bronx, New York, U.S, to Eastern European Jewish immigrants (Saul Bass | Biography, Designs and Facts, 2020). He died on April the 25th, 1996, in Los Angeles, California. He enjoyed drawing from a young age; after finishing high school, he received a fellowship to the Art Students League in Manhattan; Bass then continued his education at Brooklyn College. Here he was taught by György Kepes – someone who greatly influenced Bass's work. He taught Bass how to understand opposites' unity and physical modulation of light (King and Bass 2011). Bass attended further education later in his life due to the depression era and his family needing him to work to support them (Bauer, 2020). Bass worked as a graphic designer for advertisement until 1952 when he set up his practice, Saul Bass associates, when most of his most prominent designs arose.
Bass's involvement with Hollywood began when he started designing posters for movies; in fact, the animated opening sequence he created for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) made his reputation.
Branding
Using his iconic, minimalists design, Bass branded, his designs were known to be clean, thoughtful, and made to last. Some of his most prominent designs were the AT&T (1986), the American Bell Telephone Company (1969), Kleenex (1980), Continental Airlines, Girl Scouts of America, and Quaker Oats, among other logos. His ability to create simplistic work and his skilful use of negative space is nothing short of inspiring. Nowadays, one could recreate his work in Adobe illustrator, but when Bass was designing his work, he created it by cutting paper. Bass might have used scissors or scalpel blades to cut lines with such subtle curves or, in some cases, rigid corners. As shown in his designs below, Bass was skilled at playing around with straight lines, hard corners, and curved lines. (Saul Bass: The man who changed graphic design, 2020).
Bass believed a trademark must be readily understood yet possess metaphor and ambiguity elements that will attract the viewer again and again. (Meggs and Purvis, 2016).
Bass's work is still in use today – this may be due to their simple, concrete, and perhaps timeless design. Some of his designs that are worth mentioning are his designs for Warner Communications (1972), Girl Scouts (1978 – although a slight modification was made in 2010 by OCD Agency), Kibun (1964), Kosé Cosmetics (1972) and Geffen Records (1980). His designs could be considered timeless; maybe due to their readability and legibility, they catch the viewers eye and communicate a message that does not discriminate or become interrupted by language. Bass managed to create simplistic, understandable, and uncomplicated logo designs, many of which have withstood the test of time; in general, the ones that did not last, disappeared due to the company either closing or going bankrupt; not because the logos were updated or become obsolete.
Saul Bass’s legacy was so far reaching that when he sadly passed away, Google dedicated an illustration for him depicting many of his career highlights.
Film titles
“My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.” – Saul Bass
Bass was first hired by director and producer Otto Preminger to produce a design for the movie poster; however, his incredible ability to capture a film's mood with simple shapes and images was what set him apart and impressed whomever he worked alongside. (Miller, 2019). Bass revolutionized this art form due to constant exploration, experimentation, and a creative sense of curiosity.
Saul Bass turned an unappealing list of names into an enjoyable experience not only for the viewers but also for the cast as with his work he gave them a further sense of being appreciated and recognised. Saul Bass was able to incorporate his own art ang showcase it without stealing the spotlight and instead found a way to seamlessly combine the art, music and acting without one outdoing the other.
Saul Bass worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers during his fantastic career, including Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. He even went on to win an Oscar for his film - Why Man Creates. Bass showcased his range and artistic depth in many of the film title sequences he worked on; like, for example his very graphic yet discrete representation of a drug addict on a film title sequence - something that in his time was a very controversial thing to do.
Saul Bass was a true pioneer of film title sequences, a visionary of his time. He viewed film title sequences as a way to inform the audience and leave them wanting more; with these title sequences he would evoke emotions from the viewers, adding an extra something to the overall experience of watching the film.
Conclusion
The most notable aspect of his designs would be his simple geometric shapes, symbolism, and ability to create powerful imagery with basic shapes. Although his designs were simple, they were very sophisticated. Bass's style was considered modernist for his time, his film sequences especially. Bass managed to create lasting corporate identities and memorably unique title film sequences due to his ground-breaking personal style.
Bass was a real trailblazer in the film industry, the godfather of film title sequences if you will. His style was so innovative that it still manages to be a source of inspiration for creative individuals. Bass had an open-minded approach to design that surpassed time and trends.
Due to the previously mentioned reasons, I believe Saul Bass more than earned the title of a versatile artist.
"I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don't give a damn whether the client understands that that's worth anything, or that the client thinks it's worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It's worth it to me. It's the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares." -Saul Bass
Bibliography
• Rawsthorn, A., 2011. The Man Who Made The Title Sequence Into A Film Star (Published 2011). [online] Nytimes.com. Available at:
99designs. 2020. Saul Bass: The Man Who Changed Graphic Design. [online] Available at:
Bauer, P., 2020. Saul Bass | Biography, Designs, & Facts. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at:
Famous Graphic Designers. 2020. Saul Bass | Biography, Designs And Facts. [online] Available at:
Meggs, P. and Purvis, A., 2016. Meggs' History Of Graphic Design. 5th ed. Hoboken: Wiley, p.,422.
Miller, E., 2019. Saul Bass: Graphic Designer Profile. [online] Lifewire. Available at:
Pat King and Jennifer Bass. Saul Bass. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2011.
Robert McG and Thomas Jr. “Saul Bass, 75, Designer, Dies; Made Art Out of Movie Titles.” The New York Times. April 27, 1996.