Person/Place

Saul Bass

1920-1996

Bass is easily considered one of the most if not the most influential and iconic designers of the 20th century. He was the first to break the mould of the design conformity pre-1950s and shaped the way in which future generations of designers would interpret aesthetics. There is such bold simplicity in his designs, particularly the film title sequences, which are brought to life through the most basic of movements.

"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

Above being one of the greatest Graphic Designers of all time, Bass was a master of film title design as a result of his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. Before Bass' designs, the opening title sequence of films was usually considered so dull that the curtain in a movie theatre would stay closed until it had finished, however, in Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm, the title sequence was considered a vital part of the film for the first time.

Bass' first title sequence for Hitchcock was for 1958's Vertigo was considered a haunting interpretation of the film and pretty much set the mood for it, forcing viewers to see it in the same eerie nature it was intended.

Bass was often though of as a minimalist legend, and this skill is what made him the king of, not only the title sequence, but the film poster as well. The basic forms he used were infected with such energy through colours, subtle textures and these elements created a sense of urgency, emanating the same thrill that features in the films:

Schindler's List 1993

The Shining 1980

The Anatomy of Murder 1959

The Man With The Golden Arm 1955

The Big Country 1958

Vertigo 1958

Alex Steinweiss

Album cover art has fallen in to it's very own category within graphic design, and has Steinweiss to thank for their existence. In 1940 the legendary designer created the first ever illustrated album package while he was a young art director at Columbia Records, and replaced the then-traditional brown paper wrapper with a poster-like illustration. This made a huge alteration to the sales of the album, and also altered the audiences relation to the music.

"I love music so much and I had such ambition that I was willing to go way beyond what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music.” 

Alex Steinweiss

1948 album cover

1950 album cover

1959 album cover

1944 album cover

Steinweiss' designs revolutionised the way in which records were packaged and marketed and transformed not only the design world, but the music world as well. His first cover was for a collection of songs by Rodgers and Hart in 1939, and referenced French and German posters, using geometric patterns and curly script fonts, soon to become his signature style, with the font to be copyrighted as 'Steinweiss Scrawl'.

“His images are lively, playful, boundlessly inventive and seem almost to throb with the spirit and emotion of the classical music he loved.”

Rick Poynor, review of For the Record: The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss, Financial Times Weekend Magazine

“He is an alert, energetic, twentieth century personality. He is charged with ambition—an ambition that is controlled and directed by a cool logical mind, and which has an enormous capacity for work at its service. Add to that an innate talent for design and you have a combination that almost assures success. That success is abundant and has come early, but to Steinweiss it is a by-product.”

Henry C. Pitz, The American Artist