Saul Bass: Graphic Designer

Improved Essays
Graphic Designer Research Paper
Born in New York City on May 8, 1920, Saul Bass was a popular graphic designer with a career that spanned over 40 years. Bass started out as a graphic designer in 1938 with a job at Warner Brothers. After six years, Bass left to study at the Art Students League in New York. He attended Brooklyn College and made his money working as a freelance designer. After finishing school Bass took his talents to Los Angeles to start his own design studio called Saul Bass and Associates and began to work in the film industry. Baas was best known for his work in the movie industry. His first big job in the movies was in 1954 with a production of Otto Preminger, helping to advertise for Carmen Jones. Bass brought ideas to
…show more content…
The arm was distorted and had a series of rectangular shapes to form the arm, which bass considered to represent drug addiction. Preminger however disagreed with Bass over which animated sequence with the arm looked the best. Bass argued that “the sequence fell flat without animation” but Preminger disagreed. The official compromise was “staccato-like movements as the arm segments maneuvered through the visual progression”. After this compromise, the sequence went down as a classic in American films and changed the way people thought of title sequences. Not just as being more artistic, but connecting the title sequence with a symbolic connection. The way something is pictured can immediately make someone think of something or make them have an idea in their minds of what the picture is representing. This way of thinking is something nobody ever thought of in the movie industry until Bass came along. After his work in Man with a Golden Arm Bass became a big name in the film industry. He did many popular films title sequences, each one creating a perfect picture of the story line to …show more content…
Bass had an idea to do a video prologue to the movie proper. In the opening moments of The Big Country he introduced the premise that the main character left his home for the wide-open space of the American West and at the same time showed the isolation of the location wherein the story takes place. The idea was highly successful and became very popular, proving once again Bass had an artistic mind more advanced than any others in his field, until Bass met and hired an artist and composer by the name of Elaine Makatura. After working together for quite some time the two developed an intimate professional relationship. For over 40 years Bass and Elaine did dozens of title sequences each better than the last and received endless praise from critics and those who hired them. Other than his accolades in the film industry, Bass was a “highly popular accomplished corporate identity designer, creating iconic logos in every conceivable market” (158). Bass created logos for companies like United Airlines and Dixie. He even did a short film for United Airlines and Kaiser Aluminum, which earned bass an Oscar. Some of Bass’s biggest logo commissions came from Exxon and AT&T, which we all know today. I chose to write about Saul Bass because all of his logo designs caught my eye. He has so many popular logos that everybody in America could probably still recognize today. Logos have always interested

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Most people have a stereotype on actors and actresses. For example, some people absolutely adore them, and others think they are just a waste of money, time, and are people who only care about themselves. Looking at Cedric Pendleton, there is not one conceited bone in his body. He is a loving man who truly enjoys giving back to his community. He accomplishing goals he has strived for since he was a little boy.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    SAR: “Creating The Myth” The article Creating the Myth, Linda Seger tells us what makes a good movie a great movie. Seger points out the hero myth that is portrayed in most movies and the roles they play to make the movie better. Seger tells us that all great movies have a “hero myth” behind them that usually starts with the hero living as a normal person living a normal life.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dr. King uses logos in the following quote “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation.” “Five score years ago, a great american, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation.” (King pg 261) He appeals to the audience when he talks about the symbolic shadow they…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Augusta Christine Savage was an African-American sculptor, educator, Civil Rights Activist, and Artist. She was born on February 29, 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Savage began creating sculptures from natural clay at a young age. Savage’s father was a minister and did not approve of her sculpting “images of ‘God’s creatures’ out of clay” but his disapproval did not stop her from continuing to create art (Encyclopedia). What did stop her was a lack of clay when the family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chuck Baird was a deaf American painter and performer. He was born deaf in Kansas City, along with his 3 older sisters. He was born in February 22, 1947. He opened an aesthetic of deaf culture in which visual art converts a deaf worldview. His career spanned over 35 years, and included painting, sculpting, acting, storytelling, and teaching.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever wondered what the life of the voice of Darth Vader was. Well James Earl Jones is the voice of Darth Vader. He is not just famous for that role. He has also played in many other movies and voiced many characters. James Earl Jones was a very successful Actor, but it wasn’t easy for him to get to that point.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Alexander Gardner was a Scottish photographer known for his work on the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. In November, Gardner was granted the rank of honorary Captain, this gave him the perfect opportunity to photograph the aftermath of the battle. On September 19, 1862 two days after the Battle of Antietam Gardner was able to take images of the bloody outcome. Over 70 of his pictures were put on display in a gallery in New York. These photos showed civilians the harsh realities of war.…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bob Ross Research Paper

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents” said a beloved Bob Ross (Bob Ross Quotes). Robert Norman “Bob” Ross was a beloved painter that inspired many with his simple skill and his soothing voice. Though he has passed, his legacy lives on with his shows and his art. It reminds us that “There's nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend”(Bob Ross Quotes) He was an inspiration to his generation and all generations to come.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wonderful Master of Art, Grant Wood's Grant Woods is an amazing artist which I failed to see before browsing through this book. Grant woods has a very elegant way of painting art. By making his art appear realistic his art is much more complex than you might think. Figuring out what artist to pick was extremely difficult. Once the painting of American Gothic came up I suddenly knew which artist I wanted to study.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He used logos a lot because he often included facts proving that his point was true. For example, in the article, Yoni Applebaum talked about how there was a study of the Collegiate Learning Assessment test and how business majors didn’t do as well as those who focused on liberal arts (par.5). He had good use of ethos, too. In the essay, Applebaum used a quote from Erika Walker, an assistant dean from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business (par.6). He also used a quote from Charles Iacovou, a dean Wake Forest University (par. 7).…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One way he uses logos is by showing pictures of ice melting and lakes drying up. For example, he shows various before and after pictures of ice glaciers. Gore shows pictures from Peru, Argentina, and other places in the world, places that once were covered in ice and now almost completely melted. But what happens if all ice glaciers melt? If all ice glaciers melt, almost half of the population on Earth will be in trouble, because 40% of the population get their drinking from ice glaciers.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Zoe Strauss Artwork

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The artwork I chose happens to be a picture taken by Zoe Strauss. In the picture you can see a male walking past what looks like an abandoned car garage, or store. In the picture there are remnants of a prior snow storm. The snow shown in the picture looks mostly melted, but there is some remaining piles on the sidewalk near the road. Near the man’s rear foot shown in the picture you can see a can see a dingy, and wet cardboard box flattened to be used as a potential shelter, or place to sleep for an individual.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bill Graham: Rock Impresario Bill Graham was a legendary rock concert promoter from the 1960’s up until his untimely death in 1991. He was born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca on January 8, 1931 in Berlin, Germany and at the age of eleven immigrated to the United States as part of a Red Cross initiative to help Jewish children fleeing the Holocaust. He was fostered by a family in the Bronx and grew up in New York City, graduated high school, and obtained a business degree from City College. When he turned eighteen, he changed his last name to Graham, and at age twenty was drafted into the army where he served in the Korean War.…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Logos formed another important part of making this article…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thelma and Louise, a film by Carolyn Ann Khouri, trails the liberations of two working class women in the 90’s. These women plan a weekend away from the men in their lives due to the fact that Thelma’s husband is a misogynistic man who feels that a woman’s job consists only of housework and cooking. In the first scene of the movie Thelma wants to ask her husband, Darryl, for permission to go on the trip with Louise. He yells at her and she quickly changes the subject. In my opinion, this is one of the most crucial scenes in the entire film because it outlines the sexism and discrimination that these two women will face throughout the course of the movie.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays