Saul Bass

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Born in New York to Eastern European Jewish Immigrants on May 8th, 1920, Saul Bass is an internationally celebrated and acclaimed Graphic Designer and Filmmaker. Bass studied at the James Monroe High school in his birth place Bronx and later went on to study at the Art Students League in Manhattan and eventually ended up at Brooklyn College. Bass’ career spanned over a period of 40 years in which he worked for the top notch Hollywood filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock and many more. Bass is well known for his work that includes Film Posters, Corporate Logos, Title Sequences, Print Advertisements, etc. ‘Symbolize and summarize’ are the two keywords that stand out in Bass’ work, specially his film posters. He…show more content…
Even though Sims regarded it as tribute to Bass, the latter refused to acknowledge it as that and regarded it as a rip off of his poster. For Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film, Vertigo, Saul Bass carried forward his tradition of depicting the plot of the movie through the poster in a minimalistic yet graphical way. The poster has a red background with a white Vortex on one third of the poster with a silhouette of a male and an outline of a female’s body in a way that it looks like they are getting sucked into the Vortex which was the concept of the movie. Bass used white circles and placed them in such a way that they form an intricate spiral which has a circular motion feel to it. Since the vortex is the only white element on the poster, it immediately gathers attention of the viewer. The silhouettes are placed in the middle so that the eye of the viewer after following a circular motion of the vortex, lands in the middle so they can take notice of the figures Bass placed in the middle. It also gives the viewer a feel that there is some sort of conflict involved and creates suspense. The black silhouette even creates mystery about the characters and the contrast of black and white really stands…show more content…
The reason behind using blue for the text on the bottom is because it’s a cool color and doesn’t take away the attention from the illustration. And also, if it was in black, the poster would have looked too monotonous. The stylization is the sole use of illustration and no use of real imagery whatsoever, which was Bass’ trademark style. Inspired and influenced by the Russian Constructivism and Bauhaus as well as being taught by artists such as György Kepes, Bass succeeded in inspiring other ambitious artists such as Olly Moss. There have also been several inspired recreations of Bass’ work. His work has been innovative and influential till date. His expertise was not just constrained to designing Film Posters, but also Social Awareness Posters, Films, and Title Sequences Through his posters, he successfully gave the feel of the movie to the audience by using symbolic illustrations to represent the movie’s meaning. Although, his work was subtle, it created a strong impact through the range of techniques and aesthetics he possessed. His standard of work is un-touched and unparallel. There is a pattern in his style of work which makes it easy identifiable. As a ritual, Saul Bass always made sure he signed every piece of work that he
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