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
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