Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences,film posters, and corporate logos.

During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder,Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the AT&T ”bell” logo in 1969, as well as AT&T‘s “globe” logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines‘ 1968 “jetstream” logo and United Airlines‘ 1974 “tulip” logo which became some of the most recognized airline industry logos of the era. Google honored Saul Bass by featuring him in a Google Doodle on May 8, 2013.

Early life

Saul Bass was born on May 8, 1920, in the Bronx, New York, United States, North America, to Eastern European Jewish immigrant parents. He graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx and studied part-time at the Art Students League in Manhattan until attending night classes with György Kepes at Brooklyn College. He began his time in Hollywood during the 1940s doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design a film poster for his 1954 film Carmen Jones. Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create a title sequence which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and contribute to the mood and the theme of the movie within the opening moments. Bass was one of the first to realize the creative potential of the opening and closing credits of a movie.

Film title sequences

Bass became widely known in the film industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger‘s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The subject of the film was a jazz musician’s struggle to overcome his heroin addiction, a taboo subject in the mid-1950s. Bass decided to create an innovative title sequence to match the film’s controversial subject. He chose the arm as the central image, as it is a strong image relating to heroin addiction. The titles featured an animated, white on black paper cut-out arm of a heroin addict. As he hoped, it caused quite a sensation.

For Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective, memorable title sequences, inventing a new type of kinetic typography, for North by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), working with John Whitney, and Psycho (1960). It was this kind of innovative, revolutionary work that made Bass a revered graphic designer. Before the advent of Bass’s title sequences in the 1950s, titles were generally static, separate from the movie, and it was common for them to be projected onto the cinema curtains, the curtains only being raised right before the first scene of the movie.

Bass once described his main goal for his title sequences as being to ‘’try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story”. Another philosophy that Bass described as influencing his title sequences was the goal of getting the audience to see familiar parts of their world in an unfamiliar way. Examples of this or what he described as “making the ordinary extraordinary” can be seen in Walk on the Wild Side (1962) where an ordinary cat becomes a mysterious prowling predator, and in Nine Hours to Rama (1963) where the interior workings of a clock become an expansive new landscape.

He designed title sequences for more than 40 years, and employed diverse film making techniques, from cut-out animation for Anatomy of a Murder (1958), to fully animated mini-movies such as the epilogue for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and live action sequences. His live action opening title sequences often served as prologues to their films and transitioned seamlessly into their opening scenes. These “time before” title sequences either compress or expand time with startling results. The title sequence to Grand Prix (1966) portrays the moments before the opening race in Monte Carlo, the title sequence to The Big Country (1958) depicts the days it takes a stage coach to travel to a remote Western town, and the opening montage title sequence to The Victors (1963) chronicles the twenty seven years between World War I and the middle of World War II, where the film begins.

Toward the end of his career, he was rediscovered by James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese who had grown up admiring his film work. For Scorsese, Saul Bass (in collaboration with his wife Elaine Bass) created title sequences for Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), and Casino (1995), his last title sequence. His later work with Martin Scorsese saw him move away from the optical techniques that he had pioneered and move into the use of computerized effects. Bass’s title sequences featured new and innovative methods of production and startling graphic design.

In some sense, all modern opening title sequences that introduce the mood or theme of a film can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass’s innovative work. In particular, though, title sequences for some recent movies and television series, especially those whose setting is during the 1960s, have purposely emulated the graphic style of his animated sequences from that era. Some examples of title sequences that pay homage to Bass’s graphics and animated title sequences are Catch Me If You Can (2002), X-Men: First Class (2011), and the opening to the AMC series Mad Men.

Movie posters

Saul Bass designed emblematic movie posters that transformed the visuals of film advertising. Before Bass’s seminal poster for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), movie posters were dominated by depictions of key scenes or characters from the film, often both juxtaposed with each other. Bass’s posters, however, typically developed simplified, symbolic designs that visually communicated key essential elements of the film. For example, his poster for a Man with a Golden Arm, with a jagged arm and off-kilter typography, starkly communicates the protagonist’s struggle with heroin addiction. Bass’s iconic Vertigo (1958) poster, with its stylized figures sucked down into the nucleus of a spiral vortex, captures the anxiety and disorientation central to the film. His poster for Anatomy of a Murder (1959), featuring the silhouette of a corpse jarringly dissected into seven pieces, makes both a pun on the film’s title and captures the moral ambiguities within which this court room drama is immersed.

He created some of his best known posters for films directed by Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Stanley Kubrick among others. His last commissioned film poster was created for Steven Spielberg‘s Schindler’s List (1993), but it was never distributed. His poster work spanned five decades and inspired numerous other poster and graphic designers. Bass’s film posters are characterized by a distinctive typography and minimalistic style.

He received an unintentionally backhanded tribute in 1995, when Spike Lee‘s film Clockers was promoted by a poster that was strikingly similar to Bass’s 1959 work for Preminger’s film Anatomy of a Murder. Designer Art Sims claimed that it was made as an homage, but Bass regarded it as theft. Many film posters have been considered to be homages to Saul Bass’s posters. Some recent examples include, the theatrical release poster for Burn After Reading (2008) which incorporates Bass’s typography and style of figurative minimalism, and a poster for Precious (2009) which includes elements from several of Bass’s posters, including Anatomy of a Murder^. The cover art for the White Stripes‘ single The Hardest Button to Button is clearly inspired by the Bass poster for The Man with the Golden Arm.

In addition to movie posters, Bass designed numerous posters for film festivals, and several magazine, book, and album covers. He also designed five Academy Award Presentation posters and the Student Academy Award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1962 he illustrated his only children’s book, Henri’s Walk to Paris, written by Lenore Klein.

Filmmaker

During the 1960s, Bass was asked by directors and producers to produce not only title sequences for their films, but also to visualize and storyboard key scenes and sequences within them. Bass has the unusual credit of “visual consultant” or “pictorial consultant” on five films. For Spartacus (1960), Bass as “visual consultant” designed key elements of the gladiator school and storyboarded the final battle between slaves and Romans. John Frankenheimer, the director of Grand Prix (1966), had Bass storyboard, direct, and edit all but one of the racing sequences for his film. For West Side Story (1961) Bass filmed the prologue, storyboarded the opening dance sequence, and created the ending title sequence.

It is Bass’s credited role as “pictorial consultant” for Alfred Hitchcock on Psycho (1960), however, that has caused some controversy. Bass claimed that he participated in directing the highlight scene of Psycho, the tightly edited shower-murder sequence, though several on set at the time (including star Janet Leigh) disputed his contention of “direction”. It can be argued, however, that the dispute was simply semantic in nature with Bass’s use of the term “directing” reflecting his own perspective on the “directorial” value of his influential graphic contribution to the scene, while the position of others on the set was based on the scene being literally directed by Hitchcock as the film director ultimately in charge of all artistic decisions.

The research of several film scholars on Hitchcock’s production of Psycho validates the claim that Bass in his capacity as a graphic artist did indeed have a significant influence on the visual design and pacing of that famous scene. Hitchcock had asked Bass to design and produce storyboards for the shower-murder scene and for some other scenes in the film. For this, Bass received a credit as Pictorial Consultant as well as Title Designer. Janet Leigh told Donald Spoto that “the planning of the shower scene was left up to Saul Bass, and Hitchcock followed his storyboard precisely. Because of this . . . [the shooting] went very professionally,” and she told Stephen Rebello that “Mr. Hitchcock showed Saul Bass’s storyboards to me quite proudly, telling me in exact detail how he was going to shoot the scene from Saul’s plans”.

Bill Krohn has noted that Bass’s 48 story board panels for the scene introduced all the key aspects of the final shower-murder scene, namely the fact that the attacker would be seen as a silhouette, the shower curtain torn down, a close-up of the shower head from below, a high angle shot of the murder scene with the curtain rod used as a barrier and the famous shot of the transition from the drainage hole of the bathtub to Marion Crane’s dead eye which as Krohn notes is reminiscent of Bass’s iris titles for Vertigo. Krohn also concludes that Bass did not literally direct the shower-murder scene, proving Hitchcock’s presence on the set throughout the shooting of that scene conclusively.

Bass introduced the idea of using a montage of fast cuts and tight framing to render a violent, bloody murder as an impressionistic and nearly bloodless one. Hitchcock felt uncertain about Bass’s conception of the scene fearing that audiences might not accept such a stylized and quickly cut sequence. In an interview with film historian Pat Kirkham, Bass recalled, “Having designed and storyboarded the shower sequence, I showed it to Hitch. He was uneasy about it. It was very un-Hitchcockian in character. He never used that kind of quick cutting; he loved the long shot”.

To convince Hitchcock that the scene would work as planned, eight days before shooting of the final shower scene, Bass used a newsreel camera and Janet Leigh’s stand-in Marli Renfro to shoot footage on the set to plan the shots in more detail. Working with Hitchcock’s editor George Tomasini, he edited this footage following the storyboards to show Hitchcock how the scene could work. In the end, Hitchcock gave his approval but, according to Kirkham, made two additions: a spray of blood on the chest of Marion Crane/Janet Leigh as she slides down the tiles, and a close-up of her belly getting stabbed.

In 1964, Bass directed a short film titled The Searching Eye shown during the 1964 New York World’s Fair, coproduced with Sy Wexler. He also directed a short documentary film called Why Man Creates for which he won an Academy Award Oscar in 1968. An abbreviated version of that film was broadcast that year on the first episode of the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes. In 2002, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Saul Bass co-directed with his wife Elaine Bass several other short films, two of which were nominated for Academy Award Oscars; Notes on the Popular Arts in 1977, and The Solar Film in 1979, the latter for which Robert Redford was the executive producer.

In 1974, he made his only feature length film as a director, the visually splendid though little-known science fiction film Phase IV, a “Quiet, haunting, beautiful, [...] and largely overlooked, science-fiction masterwork”.

Receiving a postcard in the mail used to be like getting a text, a Facebook message, a great tweet, and a pin all at once. Postcards are personal and beautiful —they can ooze style, humor and artistic prowess. The postcard industry shrank like a slug in salt when cell phones and text messaging became the standard in communication, but the humble postcard isn’t ready to meet its maker just yet.

Sometime in 2008, interest in postcards was reignited by the art and design community, followed by a subsequent boon in postcard printing. The Daily Mail UK reports that postcard sales have increased by more than 30 million units since 2005. Perhaps after the novelty of text messaging became commonplace, the world started to realize that nothing compares to a hand-selected postcard. The postcard industry continues to enjoy its mini-Renaissance as artists, designers, and even corporations print and collect these relics.

Postmarked With Love

Collecting rare and beautiful postcards is called Deltiology, and there are quite a few clubs and institutions devoted to it. The Institute of American Deltiology’s collection priorities are postcards printed by American firms, photographs by known artists, and authentic postcards from every state. Postcards are not only a status symbol with vintage appeal, they are works of art that can help build legacies. One of the most famous photographers in the world, Ansel Adams, grew popular largely because his stunning postcards were such big sellers

Hip and Square

Many corporations and rising stars in the marketing world see postcards as passé or too old world, but that is simply not the case. In November 2012, the Gap launched a massive holiday postcard campaign in which they allowed fans to create holiday postcards with their Facebook photos. They sent out one million postcards free of charge, and the campaign was successful. Social media giant Facebook even created its own line of “Poke” postcards that proved to be a hit with the masses.

photo visual.dichotomy

How to Make a (Post) Mark

Postcard marketing campaigns are relatively inexpensive, as many postcard printing companies offer services for as little as a few hundred dollars. To create a postcard that resonates and sticks with the audience is the tricky part. Postcard design should start with a concept that engages the target market, feature an unforgettable tag line, and be sewn together with beautiful or eye-popping art.

The world may have changed by leaps and bounds since postcards began, but the principles of head-turning tactics haven’t. Postcards should be exciting, alluring and remind recipients of something important. The After Five tuxedo company in Baton Rouge sends approximately 150 postcards out each month after researching wedding announcements, which accounts for 60 percent of its business. Other businesses have enjoyed similar success. Ad buys online are easy and quick, but they flash before a viewer’s eyes for a second, lost in a sea of banners and pop ups, and then they retreat forever. A postcard, however, is a tangible piece of art that can be held, remembered, collected and savored for hundreds of years.

Jeannie Lit is a well known name to all the digital artists around the world, because her idea has helped from nightmare of every artist……”Smudges”. Jeannie came up with the idea of Smudge Guard to prevent the smudges on the digital tablet screen or while drawing with a pencil. Smudge Guard not only helps from smudges but also looks very stylish.

Read the interview below to know the story behind Smudge Guard and an insight Jeannie.

Brenoch Adams is a US based concept artist who has an exceptional talent in bringing his art works to life with incredible amount of details. You can find few of his amazing works featured in this article.

You can find more of his works here.

To reach the masses you have to stand out from the crowd. Do something different from the norm. If you want your business to shine, but feel exhausted by the boring email, direct mail and social media campaigns you’ve been using for marketing, go bigger – have some fun with a new advertising campaign.

First, be sure your brand identity is in line. Confirm continuity between logos, letterheads, packaging, business cards and websites. That way you are recognizable from every angle, and your multifaceted approach to promoting your product or service has a chance to be successful. It’s not so much about advertising anymore but about creating a memorable experience. This is going to be fun!

New Cards

With the innovations in technology, business card printing has gotten clever. For example, Vancouver-based FLOW yoga studio gives out foam cards that roll up just like a yoga mat. Now an artist can have a business card that turns into a mini piece of art on a tiny easel. The sky is the limit; the more creative and memorable you get, the more likely you’ll earn new business. With so many custom options available, this is a good start to your new plan.

And, how about using business checks as a branding tool? This is another good opportunity to link your business to certain images in the eyes of the consumer. Add your logo and coordinate your checks with your website and print materials.

Walking Billboards

Remember back in 2002, when goldenpalace.com tatted up the back of an undeniably popular middleweight champion, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins? That created an ongoing controversy that had advertisers, consumers and reporters arguing the relevance and couth of it. But it worked – you still know the name “Golden Palace,” and according to their website, they’re going on 15 years in the business.

While a henna tattoo on a famous athlete might not be your preferred method of notoriety, you can still spread the word by using people to promote your product. Why not try walking billboards? Innovative display equipment allows for large, lightweight signs to be carried on people’s backs. They can even be lit up or have scrolling text. Hire a group to walk around an area of interest wearing these and you’ll definitely stand out. You can see varieties of this type of advertising on rickshaws (pedicabs) and on moving ad trucks, as well.

Toilet Paper

What else are you doing while sitting on the toilet? Jordan and Bryan Silverman started a toilet paper company that prints advertisements on Eco-friendly TP. That’s right, you can put your name out there to every human being who enters that bathroom. Everyone has to go, right? And Star Toilet Paper’s website touts the paper to be comfortable, septic-safe, easy-to-read and customizable. Best of all though, the toilet paper ads are printed with nonabrasive (thank you) vegetable oil-based ink. In other words, it’s user-friendly.

Pizza Box Ads

Similar line of thinking here: Everyone orders pizza, at least every now and then, right? Pizza Box Top Ads says to “Think On the Box” when considering unique advertising methods. Hand-delivery sidesteps the legwork of advertising with door hangers, fliers and coupon books. There are many benefits to printing your ad on a pizza box; first of all, people love pizza, so when you reach them, they’re generally in a good mood. Your pizza box advertising campaign will be seen seven days a week, and it creates a warm connection to the local community.

In this article we have featured few of the most creative Brochure, Business Cards and Packaging Designs created by various talented artists from around the world.

Looking for a Quality Printer for Brochure Printing and Postcard Printing? Then you must visit PrintRunner to get the quality you want.

In this article we have published some creative and unique Card Design works of three uniquely creative artists.

Get your Business Cards and Sticker Printing at PrintRunner for quality printing.

Pixel Fashion

Whose to say what inspires the most magnetic force in the media world; whatever it is, we can’t get enough. Although fashion week is over, the gorgeous impact of this years look is sure to linger on as the seasons progress. One look that stood out this year across the creative board is the pixelated influence. From Japan to England, these eye-catching homage’s to graphic design are showing up everywhere from coats to cards to shoes. Is this a passing trend or are they here to stay?

image courtesy : technabob.com

Whether you have a graphic design degree or aspirations of dominating fashion school, you’ve seen a pixel or two. Perhaps this pervasive new look is a byproduct of an increasingly pixelated world? Whatever it is, the inspiration has landed on the runway coast to coast.

Hopping the High-Tech Cradle

Fall and winter collections seemed to be dripping with technological influence this year. Graphic and blocky images complimented many pixelated ensembles, as well. Chanel Karl Lagerfeld showcased a collection that called to mind soothing summer breezes stacked with solar paneling. Louis Vuitton also channeled the high tech look in sheer graphics. The stark suits, rompers, and pieces showcased grid-like graphics that demonstrated an almost serene versatility.

image courtesy : Trendhunter.com

Marc Jacobs hopped on the wagon with his own floral print that was formed from a micro version, or overlaid on outfits and cut in a single color. Jacob’s last New York show also featured a collection made almost entirely of lines and stripes, that Metro USexclaims is “two sides of the same graphic coin.”

8-Bit Throwback

Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga gives a clear nod to the 8-bit world with his fun designs this year; creating pieces that seem inspired by video games back in the day. The fun pieces paired with cubist glasses and funky footwear puts a fun new spin on an already new look.

image courtesy : chicquero.com

Similarly, Anrealage, the Japanese fashion house produced some edgy, playful and jaw dropping looks on the runway this season as well. Their looks stretched from being purely pixelated to 3-D, to other graphic design-influenced looks.

From Coats to Totes

The pixelated look isn’t just for the fashion elite. Coffee lovers can now enjoy it on all their Starbucks gear. The coffee behemoth has paired with Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the sisters behind the edgy womenswear brand Rodarte, to design a series of limited edition products for the chain. The beloved indie designers are helping Starbucks with their first foray into fashion, which, as avid coffee drinkers, is an honor to them.

image courtesy : brandingmagazine.com

The sisters designed totes, gift cards, and coffee mugs that feature shades of pixelated grays and silvers on greens; they even gave the Starbucks mermaid the pixelated treatment. Unlike their clothing, which can run upwards of ten thousand dollars, the Starbucks merchandise will be available for $5 to $13. Whether or not you’re even interested in designer fashion, your coffee will still be looking pretty cool in the new mugs. Hopefully pixelated power is here to stay.

image courtesy : zipop.com

Featuring few of the best Advertising and print design works done by various creative artists from around the world.

As a young audio engineering company G7 Tontechnik commissioned us – dieTaikonauten – for creating a complete new Corporate Design. The Berlin-based studio desired for an impressive visual identity to start their project with the best possible conditions in a very competitive market. The essential approach was based on an endeavour to combine liveliness and reliability under the heading of an aesthetic appearance.

Within this commissioning we realized a suitable and individual blip in a form of a volume control. As a core component of our upcoming creations business cards, the corporate stationary and several advertising materials were created. Furthermore – as a creative agency with core services in the digital world – we put a special focus on designing and developing the corporate website of G7 Tontechnik.

Get your trifold brochure printing at UPrinting

According to the Chinese calendar, 2012 is the year of Black Dragon. Oriental traditions have become very popular among Ukrainians and got closely bound with the religious (Christmas) and conventional (New Year) holidays. So, New Year gains new symbolism but is still considered a beginning of a new stage in the private and business life of a modern person.

Dragon Card is a New Year greeting form Graphic Design Studio by Yurko Gutsulyak to its clients, partners and friends. It is a wish to be courageous in one’s decisions and strong in overcoming obstacles. To tame a dragon is to achieve success.

It’s important to feel the design not only by seeing it, but also by touching.

Every company wants their merchandise and products to reflect the company’s personality. So they take extra care in coming up with a print design or a product design.

Here we have gathered some innovative print design works of various gifted artists.

 This project came together very organically, firstly playing with a new simple, drawing style in my sketchbook, then taking these drawings into Adobe Illustrator and again keeping them nice and simple, allowing the curves and shapes of the drawing really shine and bring life and character to the animals.  As they came together, Fluid Animals started to gain quite a wonderful following online and soon enough people were asking if I could produce something they could buy, a calendar with 12 of the most favorite illustrations seemed perfect.

You can get a custom brochure printing at UPrinting for your business.

A project developed in collaboration with Stephanie Oglesby to brand and promote a new festival aimed at creative professionals. We have proposed that the festival would entail inviting creative practitioners from various fields and disciplines to collaborate and ‘crossover’ to create a piece of work that they wouldn’t normally. Thus, we named the project the ‘Crossover Festival’. The name appears in various forms across the identity, with it being shortened to ‘x-over’ and then a pattern which adapts across the different resolutions. Black, white, grey and salmon form the core colour scheme with a screen-printed, neon spot colour overlaid. The printed collateral consists of promotional posters, a festival guide publication, event timetable, tickets, wristbands and lanyards. Finally, t-shirts and tote bags were also produced whilst we mocked up examples of the exhibition space.

In time of work process there has been made the compound sign including monogram MV (Markov Vin – fr.) and inscriptions, telling the information about sommelier. The wooden case-organizer is stylized as a wine box and it is marked suitably (a quantity of bottles, alcohol by volume, bottle volume, number of batch and IPPC mark). Set of the seals for independent manufacturing of business cards completes this kit (with date of
manufacturing, like the date of pouring of wine) on textured paper and business cards holder, also executed from a natural tree.

Work team:
design, manufacture — Emelyanov Pavel
photography — Pleshkov Andrey.

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