Saul Bass 

Saul Bass was born 8th May 1920 in New York, he was an American designer and filmmaker, motion pictures. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York, he also studied as Brooklyn college. Bass started out as a freelance designer in New York. After this he moved to Los Angeles where he set up in his own design practice. Film advertising was what he started out designing in the late 1940’s and in the mid 1950’s he designed titles. 

In 1954 Otto Preminger was a movie director who hired Bass to create film posters. One of his designs was for the film ’ The Man With The Golden Arm’, which was completed in 1987. Some of the film posters he designed, he also designed the soundtrack covers. He also worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.

 Bass died 25th April 1996 aged 75.              

      Saul Bass's work

 

'The Man With The Golden Arm'

This was desinged in  1955, this was not the only poster design he produced. Most of the other designs did not have images of of the actors.

• This design has an image of the actors such as Frank Sinatra but the images look like coloured negatives.
• It looks like it has been hand cut as the lines look uneven.
• Bass has used geometric shapes. 
• It is a simple desing.
• It is also bold.                        

I quiet like this design as it is simple but effective. I think it stands out because of the use of contrasting colours and the arm coming down the centre of the title.                                                                                                 

This is my own copy of this poster design, for this I have cut out coloured paper for the shapes, text and image. I think it was quiet successful as you can see the bold, bright colours and the hand cut style but I think the text was not as successful as some of it is not very clear. I found the text was hard as it is very small which makes it hard to cut. I also found that it was also very hard to fit in as it is slightly bigger to Bass's asI need to be to allow me to cut it. I think it would be better to cut some of it out like the names of the actors and the title but the rest of the text I think I could have used a stencil and fine liner.

                                                       

I have used this style to produce a film poster of a film that I know. For this I have chosen 'From Hell'. As it is about Jack the Ripper and how he lurde prostitutes in I have concentrate on this, as in this film it shows Jack the Ripper using grapes and wine as at this time they were classed as luxuries. I have used this to produce a silhouette of a wine bottle with wine dripping down the bottle and a small bunch of grapes. I have decided to have the wine coming from the bottle as on the original poster it has a setion within it like the shape am using that shows a silhouette of Jack the Ripper in the streets of London. As you can see I have used different colours for each silhouette, I have done this so it can contain some of the bold and bright colours but still have that sense of horror. 

I think this has been quiet successful as you can see the style within it but it still has the theme of the film within it. I found cutting my figure of Jack the Ripper hard as it is on a small scale, if I was to do this again I think I would consider a larger sized paper as this is only A4 which makes it harder to cut small sections out.

 

                                                         

 

'Vertigo' is another film poster that Bass designed, this was designed for Alfred Hitchcock. This was designed in 1958. He also designed the credits for this film.

• He has used the the spirals which links in with one of the symptoms of vertigo which is dizziness.
• He has the cut out look for the text.
• He has used contrasting colours as the black stands out from the red as the red is very bright.
• It looks like the figure of the women is falling which also links with vertigo as vertigo is a balance disorder.

I like how Bass has link the meaning of veritgo in with his poster design as it really shows what the film is about. I think this looks quiet a simple design but I think this makes it successful.
                                                         

This is a 'West Side Story' poster, this was designed in1961. 

• This film is a musical that is based on Romeo and Juliet and I think Bass has shown this with the use of silhouettes  dancing on a balcony, looking at each other.
• The text is a lot bolder compared to his other design, I think this has a mono print effect as it has patches where there you can see the background colour coming through.
• He has used contrasting colours.
• He has used the silhouettes between the text at the top but in black.
• The infomation has been produced in very small text, I think he did this to make the title stand out.

I think Bass has used a good technique with the larger title as your eye is automatically drawn to it. I think this is also be because of the use of contrasting colours as the black stands out on the red background.