Saul Bass

3.11.2014

Saul Bass

Saul Bass, born May 8th, 1920, was a widely accomplished graphic designer and an award winning film maker.  He is most widely known for his work in the design of opening title sequences for motion pictures, film posters and corporate logos.  During his 40 year long career he worked with some of the Hollywood's most acclaimed filmmakers including; Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.

Opening Title Sequences
Bass once said,
 "“For the average audience, the credits tell them there’s only
three minutes left to eat popcorn. I take this ‘dead’ period and try to do more than simply get rid of names that film goers aren’t interested in.
I aim to set up the audience for what’s coming;
make them expectant.”
His work on Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest for Alfred Hitchcock are probably some of his most memorable pieces of work.


Logos

Bass has designed some of the most well known corporate logos in North America which include; the Bell System logo (1969), AT&T's globe logo (1983), Continental Airlines' (1968) and United Airlines (1974).

What Stands out to me most about Bass' work is the simplicity of his ideas and yet when people see them they know what they are as they are very well known. I think this simplicity is why he stands out from a lot of other logo designers, as many try and go too over the top, but when it comes down to it, the more simplistic the logo the more likely people will be able to remember it when they see it over and over again.

 It can be seen that he uses the colours red and blue primarily within his logos, personally I believe that he may have decided upon these
colours because they tend to stand out to the human eye.