Saul Bass. Occupation: title designer director, animator. Born: May 8, 1920, New York, NY. Died: April 25, 1996

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1 Saul Bass Occupation: title designer director, animator Born: May 8, 1920, New York, NY Died: April 25, 1996 Education: Art Students League, New York; Brooklyn College, NY

2 Design is thinking made visual - Saul Bass Saul Bassʼs design accomplishment covers many areas of visual communication: graphic design, movie titles and films, corporate design programs. Bass revolutionized the design of film title sequences, beginning with Otto Premingerʼs Carmen Jones (1954). He pioneered the use of animation techniques to achieve a range of psychological and emotional effects unobtainable with conventional straight type. His collaborations with Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock were outstanding, particularly Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965).

3 Even before he made his cinematic debut, Bass was a celebrated graphic designer. Born in the Bronx district of New York, he was a creative child who drew constantly. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under Gyorgy Kepes, an Hungarian graphic designer who had worked with László Moholy-Nagy in 1930s Berlin and fled with him to the US. Kepes introduced Bass to Moholyʼs Bauhaus style and to Russian Constructivism. Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer in New York. Chafing at the creative constraints imposed on him in New York, he moved to Los Angeles in After freelancing, he opened his own studio in 1950 working mostly in advertising until Preminger invited him to design the poster for his 1954 movie, Carmen Jones. Impressed by the result, Preminger asked Bass to create the filmʼs title sequence too.

4 1920 Saul Bass is born in the Bronx district of New York 1936 Wins a scholarship to study at the Art Studentsʼ League in Manhattan 1938 Employed as an assistant in the art department of the New York office of Warner Bros 1944 Joins the Blaine Thompson Company, an advertising agency, and enrolls at Brooklyn College, where he is taught by the émigré Hungarian designer and design theorist Gyorgy Kepes 1946 Moves to Los Angeles to work as an art director at the advertising agency, Buchanan and Company 1952 Opens his own studio, named Saul Bass & Associates in Designs his first title sequence for Otto Premingerʼs Carmen Jones 1955 Creates titles for Robert Aldrichʼs The Big Knife and Billy Wilderʼs The Seven Year Itch. The animated sequence he devises for Premingerʼs The Man with a Golden Arm causes a sensation 1956 Elaine Makatura joins the studio as an assistant 1957 Devises titles for Michael Andersonʼs Around The World in 80 Days and Premingerʼs Bonjour Tristesse 1958 Forges a new collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock by designing the titles for Vertigo. Works with the architects Buff, Straub & Hensman on the design of his home, Case Study House #20 in Altadena 1959 Creates the title sequences for Hitchcockʼs North by Northwest and Premingerʼs Anatomy of a Murder 1960 First title commission for Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus, and the last for Hitchcock, Psycho 1962 Devises titles for Edward Dmytrykʼs Walk on the Wild Side and directs his first short film, Apples and Oranges. Marries Elaine Makatura 1963 Stanley Kramer commissions Bass to create titles for Itʼs A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1966 Directs the racing sequences and devises the titles for John Frankenheimerʼs Grand Prix 1968 Wins an Oscar for the short film Why Man Creates and develops a corporate identity programme for the Bell System telephone company. Creates an installation for the Milan Triennale, which is cancelled after a student occupation 1973 Designs the corporate identity of United Airlines 1974 Directs his first feature film Phase IV 1980 Designs the poster for Stanley Kubrickʼs The Shining and devises the corporate identity of the Minolta camera company 1984 Creates a poster for the Los Angeles Olympic Games 1987 James L. Brooks persuades Bass to return to title design by creating the opening sequence of Broadcast News 1990 Begins a long collaboration with Martin Scorsese by creating the titles for GoodFellas 1991 Devises the titles for Scorseseʼs Cape Fear and a poster for the 63rd Academy Awards. Bass designs the Academy Awards poster for the next five years Creates the title sequence for Scorseseʼs The Age of Innocence and a poster for Steven Spielbergʼs Schindlerʼs List 1995 Designs titles for Scorseseʼs Casino 1996 Saul Bass dies in Los Angeles of non-hodgkins lymphoma

5 Many people who never heard of Saul Bass are surprised to learn really how much of his work they know Poster for The Man With the Golden Arm, Poster for Vertigo, 1958 : Director: Alfred Hitchcock 3. Poster for Bunny Lake is Missing, Poster for One, Two, Three, Poster for The Two of Us

6 Saul Bass created one of his most prestigious and evocative title sequences. The graphic motifs that Bass suggested were nervous, balletic horizontal and vertical bars that expanded and contracted in mirror-image patterns. They simultaneously suggest prison bars, city buildings and sound waves. Their movement also symbolizes the psychotic schizophrenia of the main character, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In those days, explained Bass, I liked strong, clear, structural forms against which to do things. I liked giving more zip to Psycho because it was not only the name of the picture but a word that means something. I was trying to make it more frenetic and I liked the idea of images suggesting clues coming together. Bass/Hitchcock designs: Vertigo (1958) Spinning vortex credit design. North by Northwest (1959) Lines going up (north) and left (west) credit design. Psycho (1960) Lines symbolizing stabbing (knife) credit design, and shower murder design. The film explores the title sequences from: The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), West Side Story (1961), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Itʼs a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Seconds (1966). Bass also provides fascinating insight into some of his lesser known titles: Grand Prix (1966), Nine Hours to Rama (1963), The Victors (1963), In Harmʼs Way (1965), The Big Country (1958).

7 Itʼs a cliché, but Saul Bass really has done it all. Films. Packaging. Products. Architecture. Corporate identification. Graphics. His work surrounds us. Take a plane United, Continental, Frontier: Saul Bass. Go to a film Psycho, Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Spartacus, The Man With the Golden Arm, Advise & Consent, Such Good Friends: Saul Bass. In the supermarket or in the kitchen Wesson, Quaker, Alcoa, Lawryʼs, Dixie: Saul Bass. Relax with a magazine, read a book, watch TV, take some pictures Saturday Evening Post, Warner, Minolta: Saul Bass. Give to charity The United Way, Girl Scouts: Saul Bass. Strike an Ohio Blue Tip match. Before anyone in the film industry, Bass recognized the importance of a movieʼs first moments: they should do more than warn the audience that a few minutes remain to make a trip to the popcorn stand. He invented the idea of titling movies either at the beginning or end with sequences that added something in a highly symbolic and evocative way and created print-graphic identification for films that not only title the film, but also serve to unify and drive entire marketing and advertising campaigns..