Essay on Graphic Design and Saul Bass

Amanda Rice
ART 210
Term Paper
4/22/15

Saul Bass: Designer & Storyteller

The 1950s was an exciting time for the film industry, especially for those lucky enough to include the genius of Saul Bass to their productions. In addition to designing logos for some of the biggest corporations we know today, Saul Bass was also incredibly skilled working in the film industry. His title sequences were cutting edge and many argue they completely changed the way films were presented during that time. In his most popular title sequences, The Man with the Golden Arm by Otto Preminger, Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock, and North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, Bass combines the use of simple, yet bold, graphic elements, the juxtaposition of lines, and subtle symbolic inferences to introduce the theme in an interesting way. His title sequences tell a story that is sometimes just as exciting as the film itself. Prior to the title sequences of Saul Bass, the opening of all major films consisted of a single pane of glass that was painted with typographic treatments. These panes had one goal in mind, and that was to display the film title and producer/actors names; nothing more, nothing less. Bass thought of the title sequence as the beginning of a symphony, it should begin in a mood-setting fashion and set the stage for what was to come. Kyle Cooper, a current title sequence designer, says in a Turner Classic Movie segment on Saul Bass, “The film title [in the mind of Saul Bass] is just like a poster, the graphic designer has to try and find a metaphor or a symbol and execute it in a different way.” This is exactly what he does in his work. Saul Bass captures the story and the secrets behind each film he designed for, and in that gives the viewers a sneak peek into the film they are about to watch. Each and every film title Bass designed was created with these thoughts in mind. However, the film that stands out the most during the beginning of his career is The Man With the Golden Arm. This movie was almost just as groundbreaking as the title sequences designed by Bass. It was the first time a drug addict had been portrayed as a character with morals and ethics rather than an all out drug fiend. With that in mind, Bass encompasses this idea through his design. The film begins with simple white lines dancing their way across the screen in various different ways. He stacks them, brings them in using different angles and entry points, juxtaposes them with type, and ultimately brings them together to form the image of a mangled, and twisted looking arm; which is also positioned in just the right way as to lead the viewers eye down to Otto Preminger’s name on the screen. This is best described in the well-known book about Bass called, A Life in Film Design, “He created an arresting image of a distorted, disjointed arm. The semi-abstract form helped distance the image from the harsh realities of shooting up, although they are implicit in the (dis)figuration. As well as being disconnected from a body, the black arm has the appearance of being petrified and transformed into something else, just as the Sinatra character in the film is transformed by his addiction.” (114). As his career continues, Bass becomes more and more sought after in the film industry. In 1958 he was commissioned by Alfred Hitchcock to do the opening scene for Vertigo. The film starts with a frame of a young woman’s face, we are zoomed in at a close perspective as the frames change viewpoints around her face. Bass overlays typographic treatments during these first few scenes and in the fifth frame he incorporates that genius element which makes the sequence so compelling. We are taken into this woman’s mind through a spiraling graphic treatment that evolves during the journey. This constant change eludes viewers to believe that there is something a-strew in this women’s life. Bass again, incorporates this single graphic element onto a black screen in a seamless fashion

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