Saul Bass

By Ceren Kangal

Where it all started

Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer and filmmaker. He was mainly known for his design of film posters and motion picture title sequences.

He worked for Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers such as, Otto Preminger (to design the film poster for the film ‘Carmen Jones’), Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Otto Preminger was impressed with Saul Bass’ work, that he asked him to also create the title sequence for ‘Carmen Jones’.

Posters

Saul Bass’ film posters were extremelyfamous and they were able to capture the

mood and genre of the film just by usingshapes and images he created. This was very different and preferred over the usualposter of the film’s star. Bass designed movie posters that transformed the visualsof film advertising.

Title sequences

Saul Bass had a signature theme of using shapes and lines during the title sequences he made.

For example

in ‘Psycho’:

In ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’: