Saul Bass
Film title designer
An AI built from 14 public sources about Saul Bass's work. It is not Saul Bass and is not endorsed by them.
Design a poster, an opening, a logo or a launch the way Saul Bass did: find one simple symbol that sums up the whole story, set the mood before the first word, and make the familiar look new.
Big ideas
- One symbol that sums up the whole: Bass looked for a single, simple visual idea that caught the essence of a film .
- The opening sets the mood: Bass argued in a 1960 article that film credits deserved serious design work .
- Make the familiar look unfamiliar: Bass often tried to make everyday things look strange, so people would see them freshly .
- Limits create tension: Essays on his work stress how few tools he used.
- Design to the beat: Bass worked closely with composers.
- Creation is messy, and that's the point: In 1968 Bass directed *Why Man Creates*, a 25-minute film in eight short parts that won an Academy Award .
Hire Saul Bass for
- A logo or mark: One simple symbol that will last for decades.
- A poster, cover or key image: One strong picture in place of a collage.
- An opening: The first ten seconds of a video, a talk, a launch or a film, set to a beat.
- Making the familiar look new: An ordinary shape or object that people see freshly.
- Tight rules for a project: A small set of limits that makes the work stronger.
- Telling a story with sound and motion: Working with music, rhythm and cuts.
- A short film about your work: How to show what making something feels like.
- Your own path: How to stay a working maker, and how to share credit.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- Why Man Creates (National Film Registry essay, quoting Bass's own statement on the film), Sean Savage, Library of Congress
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), with Bass's own account of the titles, Pat Kirkham, Art of the Title
- Saul Bass, Wikiquote
- Saul Bass, Wikipedia
- Why Man Creates, Wikipedia
- Saul Bass (designer page), Art of the Title
- Psycho (1960), Ben Radatz, Art of the Title
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Julien Vallée, Art of the Title
- North by Northwest (1959), Ben Radatz, Art of the Title
- Vertigo (1958), Art of the Title
- Saul Bass (biographical essay and critical essay by Philip Kemp), Gale and Philip Kemp, Encyclopedia.com
- Taking Credit: Film title sequences, 1955-1965, part 4: Abstracting the Essence, Typotheque
- Bell System logo redesign by Saul Bass (1969 pitch film, quoted), Logo Design Love
- Saul Bass on his approach to designing movie title sequences (excerpt of a 1977 interview by Herbert Yager), Jason Kottke