Saul Bass

Saul Bass is an American graphic designer who created a new, inventive style of title sequences. He began to make creative title sequences that captured the audiences attention and set up the narrative for the rest of the film. His Wife Elaine worked along side Saul and more recently has been commended for her involvement of his works. 

Saul is a pioneer for title sequence design. Some of his more famous title sequences are Carmen Jones (1954) - 

Some others include. The Big Knife (1955), a James Bond film, The Racers (1955), The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Shrike (1955).

Elanie Bass began her film career before meeting Saul Bass, It is only until more recently that her ideas and involvement has become more recognised to the public. Some works this created or worked collaboratively with Saul were West Side Story 1961, Walk on the Wild Side 1962 and Nine Hours to Rama 1963 to name a few.  

Saul is well known not only because he started creative title sequences and logos but he also won Oscars for Best Documentary in 1969, Live Action Short Film 1980 and Live Action Short Film 1978.  

Saul Bass was always inspired by his parents but one individual that influenced him was Gyorgy Kepes, a painter, graphic designer and photographer who taught Saul Bass. 

Saul then went on to work with famous film makers such as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Otto Preminger. 

A small example of his creativity in his work is In Good Fellas, the titles arrive and leave like moving cars the transitions are paired with the sound of cars driving by quickly. She sets up the first scene well as it's in a car. 

Another small example would be In Anatomy of a Murderer Bass designed the credits / titles to appear inside the various body parts with a grey theme. This is syncapated to the rhythm of the soundtrack. 

One sequence I particularly enjoyed was West Side Story, Bass designed the titles so they were apart of the characters world. They are engraved into doors and written on signs. They matches the teenage based theme of the film. It gives off a city / urban feel. They are creative in the sense that they are incorporated in the New York vibe of the film. It works well because the credits aren't obvious, you need to look amongst  the chaos of words and letters to see who was involved in the film. The greyish colour of the handwritten front adds to the teenage rebel tone. The transitions are clever and the information smoothly travels side to side or fade in or out to another surface with writing. This ending credits may have influenced other ending credits or title sequences. One I thought could have been Grease. Although the writing and font are different the credits are still involved in the world of the characters. They appear on signs billboards and posters. The titles also gives off the same city vibe. 

West Side Story,

Grease