SAUL BASS May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996

A graphic designer and filmmaker. Known for his design of film posters and motion picture title sequences.

Early Career…• He began his time in Hollywood during the 1940s doing

print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the film poster for the film Carmen Jones in 1954. Preminger was so impressed with Bass's work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well.

Title sequences…• He designed title sequences for

more than 40 years, and employed diverse film making techniques, from cut-out animation for Anatomy of a Murder in 1958…

• To fully animated mini-movies such as the epilogue for Around the World in 80 Days in 1956…

• and also live action sequences…

Movie posters…• Saul Bass designed emblematic

movie posters that transformed the visuals of film advertising.

• Bass’s posters, typically developed simplified, symbolic designs that visually communicated key essential elements of the film. For example, his poster for a Man with a Golden Arm, with a jagged arm and off-kilter typography, starkly communicates the protagonist's struggle with heroin addition.

‘Visual consultant’& ‘pictorial consultant’…

• During the 1960s, Bass was asked by directors and producers to visualize and storyboard key scenes and sequences within them. Bass has the unusual credit of “visual consultant” or “pictorial consultant” on five films.

• Bass designed key elements of the gladiator school and storyboarded the final battle between slaves and Romans John Frankenheimer, had Bass storyboard, direct, and edit all but one of the racing sequences for his film. For West Side Story in 1961 Bass filmed the prologue, storyboarded the opening dance sequence, and created the ending title sequence.

Short films…• In 1964, Bass directed a short

film titled The Searching Eye shown during the 1964 New York World's Fair, coproduced with Sy Wexler. He also directed a short documentary film called Why Man Creates for which he won an Academy Award Oscar in 1968. An abbreviated version of that film was broadcast on the first episode of the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes, on September 24th of that year.