After doing some further research into a couple of the design areas I initially chose, I decided to further the research I started on Saul Bass. I saw a lot of depth in some of the aspects that I was just glossing over in order to research everything.
There were a variety of reasons I chose to further this:
- As the inventor of film title sequence as design, I was keen to see how films translate to design in this format.
- I have an interest in this area and plan to explore it in second year, so this would also lend itself as research into that area.
- Bass' minimalist style is executed to a standard of which I could only hope to reach, as I have struggled with effective minimalist design in first year.
Bass was born in the Bronx, New York in 1920 and studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College. After multiple apprenticeships with some design agencies in Manhattan, Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer, after which he moved to LA and opened his own studio in 1950, where his main focus was advertising.
There were a variety of reasons I chose to further this:
- As the inventor of film title sequence as design, I was keen to see how films translate to design in this format.
- I have an interest in this area and plan to explore it in second year, so this would also lend itself as research into that area.
- Bass' minimalist style is executed to a standard of which I could only hope to reach, as I have struggled with effective minimalist design in first year.
Bass was born in the Bronx, New York in 1920 and studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College. After multiple apprenticeships with some design agencies in Manhattan, Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer, after which he moved to LA and opened his own studio in 1950, where his main focus was advertising.
This was until Preminger recruited him to design the poster for his film Carmen Jones in 1954, and after the impressive result, asked him to also create the title sequence. It was the series of title sequences that Bass created that earned him recognition for having a gift of capitalising on one image that then became symbolic for the film, and continued to transform it into a modern style.
"He creates an emblematic image, instantly recognisable and immediately tied to the film"
Martin Scorsese
However, in 1974, Bass returned to more commercial graphic design:
United Airlines logo
AT&T logo
Minolta logo
Bell Telephone System logo
Warner Communications logo
To many younger film directors who were new on the scene, Bass was a cinematic icon with whom they all longed to work, and in 1987 he was persuaded to go back into title sequence design, when he created the title for James' Brooks' Broadcast News and then again for Big in 1988 by Penny Marshall.
At this time one of those new directors who idolised Bass was Martin Scorsese, with whom he found a long term collaborator, and they went on to do 1993's The Age Of Innocence and 1995's Casino:
Not only was Saul Bass iconic as a designer, commercially and within the film industry, he was also an accredited filmmaker, his most recognisable being Why Man Creates which was created as a short, animated documentary in 1968 and discusses the nature of creativity. It focuses on the creative process and the variety of ways in which this process is approached.
The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject and was selected to be preserved in the US National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Bass subtitled Why Man Creates as "a series of explorations, episodes and comments on creativity" and keeps the film so tongue-in-cheek and both playful and profound throughout. The film is made up of a series of, at first, unconnected sequences but eventually all fall into place and converge into an alluring exploration of man's fundamental conscious to create.
Saul Bass died in 1996. His New York Times obituary hailed him as "the minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art."
Even to the untrained eye, it is no secret that Bass's work is relatable, not just to designers but simple to many people.
The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject and was selected to be preserved in the US National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Bass subtitled Why Man Creates as "a series of explorations, episodes and comments on creativity" and keeps the film so tongue-in-cheek and both playful and profound throughout. The film is made up of a series of, at first, unconnected sequences but eventually all fall into place and converge into an alluring exploration of man's fundamental conscious to create.
Saul Bass died in 1996. His New York Times obituary hailed him as "the minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art."
"Beneath theory and rhetoric, and well beyond technique and jargon, the reason for design is to speak to people in a language that is familiar, but also new, to entice people to understand an old thing in a new way, or grasp a new thing in an old way. There has never been a designer who can do this better than Saul Bass, who adds the 1981 AIGA Medal to his long and quite extraordinary list of honors and achievements. Saul Bass honors this award."
Even to the untrained eye, it is no secret that Bass's work is relatable, not just to designers but simple to many people.
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