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Saul Bass was born on May 8th, 1920, and died on April 25th, 1996. He was an American graphic designer and filmmaker. Bass is known as the man who changed graphic design.
During his 40-year career, Bass became known for his title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. Bass created many logos for well-known corporations including AT&T Corporation (1983), Boys & Girls Clubs of America (1978), Frontier Airlines (1978), Girl Scouts of the USA (1978), and Kleenex (1962). In an analysis of Bass’s logos, it was found that they had an unusual lifespan. The most common cause of the retirement of Bass’s logos wasn’t because the company wanted to redesign, but because they went out of business or had a merger with another larger company.
Bass’s original 1978 design for the Girl Scouts logo was redesigned in 2010 with a new color.
Bass also created many movie posters during his career as a graphic designer. Bass’s posters were often simplistic and highlighted key components or characters of the film visually in a juxtaposition with one another. He used his art to try and capture the film in a symbolic way. Bass tried to establish an emotional connection with the audience through simplicity, geometric shapes, and figurative minimalism. Some posters Bass created are The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Vertigo (1958), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Shining (1980), and Schindler’s List (1993) (rejected poster). Bass’s poster influence can be seen in recent works today using his typography and art style.
“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 launched graphic design forward with his art. He introduced the world to clean, fresh logos and movie posters with symbolic minimalism intending to establish an emotional connection before the film. He had a 40-year career and amazing work to show for it. I think Bass’s work is remarkable and can see the influence it had on the art world, then and now. When you need a little motivation on that logo design, poster, flyer, or whatever it may be – give Saul Bass’s work a look for some inspiration.
