1

DesignVerso
Saul Bass: through the looking glass
a cura di:
Bellù Chiara
Frattallone Silvia
Peracchi Sofia
Ravasi Giulia

DesignVerso è stato pensato da:

Prof.ssa Boeri Cristina
Prof.ssa Bruno Raffaella
Prof.ssa Calabi Daniela
Dott.ssa Monica Fumagalli
Dott.ssa Silvia Mondello

Scuola di Design
Corso di Laurea in
Design della Comunicazione
A.A 2016/17 C2
Politecnico di Milano

Anno di pubblicazione:
giugno 2017

“DesignVerso: una collana dedicata ai

designer della comunicazione immagi-
nata come allegato alla rivista Multiver-
so, Università degli Studi di Udine.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SOUL OF BASS MOVI(E)NG THOUGHTS THE LOGOS’ BOSS BASS TO THE FUTURE
12________________________ 42________________________ 68________________________ 90________________________
Jennifer Bass Martin Scorsese Bill Heigh Tony Sachs
Becoming Saul Bass Martin Scorsese on the talent of The Saul Bass approved method Saul Bass In A Glass
An inusual storyteller tells us about the Saul Bass of logo design The author, huge fan of Saul Bass has always
cultural background and the first steps of Oscar-winner director praises Bass and A collegue of Bass explains the way in dreamed of realizing a cocktail inspired by
Saul in the world of visual communication his work, from his album covers to their which Bass creates his famous Continental him, so he asks for help to a friend of his, a
collaborations Airlines logo bar tender.

22________________________ 50________________________ 76________________________ 94________________________

Pamela Haskin Kyle Cooper Jennifer Bass Valentina Re
Saul, can you make me a title? The look of Saul Bass Client and designer From Saul Bass to participatory
In an interview from Film Quarterly, title- An analysis of Saul Bass’ most famous The story of how the logo of Avery culture
sequence creator Saul Bass discusses his opening sequences from a world-wide International came to be and examples of The article discusses the importance of
work known title designer the relations between Bass and his clients opening title sequenzces and how Saul
Bass’ work inspired posterity.

34________________________ 56________________________ 80________________________ 116_______________________

Rick Poynor Jennifer Bass Matthew Laser Will Perkins
A life in pictures Why man creates The “pshyco” designer who tried Psycho (1998)
Behind the scenes of Saul’s creative Saul Bass’ daughter gives a look behind to save AT&T in the ‘60s Director Gus Van Sant wanted to create
process in making movie titles the scenes of the Oscar-winner short-movie A great look into the story of how the AT&T a remake of Psycho as a tribute to the
Why man creates logo changed through the years huge success of the original movie, whose
opening titles Bass created.

60________________________ 84________________________
Pat Kirkham Jennifer Bass
The case: the shower scene A life in pictures
The argument around the shower scene the daughter of Saul tells the anecdote of
in Psycho recounted through the words of two of the greatest logos his father has
people who worked on set and witnessed created, Alcoa and Lawry’s.
Bass and Hitchcock’s collaboration
THE AUTHORS IN A NUTSHELL

JENNIFER BASS_________________________ KYLE COOPER__________________________

is a graphic designer and artist. She has worked at CBS Television is an American designer known for his work creating title
in New York and at Sussman/Prejza & Company in Los Angeles. sequences for motion pictures. He has produced and directed over
In 1994, she and her husband, Lance Glover, opened their studio, 350 visual effects sequences and main title sequences across a
Treehouse Design Partnership in Los Angeles, working in the areas broad array of film and various broadcast mediums.
of environmental graphics, identity and book design.

PAMELA HASKIN________________________ PAT KIRKHAM___________________________

is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer specializing in motion is Professor in the History of Design, Decorative Arts and Culture
graphics for film and television. at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts,
Design & Culture, New York. She has written and edited a number
of books, including Charles and Ray Eames (1998) and Women
Designers in the USA 1900–2000 (2001).

RICK POYNOR__________________________ BILL HAIG_____________________________

is a writer, critic, lecturer and curator, specialising in design, is chairman and CEO of Haig Branding. Bill has worked in the field
photography and visual culture. He founded Eye, co-founded of logo design and branding for over forty years. Upon retirement
Design Observer, and contributes columns to Eye and Print. He is he pursued a PhD applying his knowledge of successful logo
Professor of Design and Visual Culture at the University of Reading design and branding to website marketing optimization.
in the UK.

MARTIN SCORSESE_____________________ MATTHEW LASAR_______________________

is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian, is Professor in the History department at University of California
whose career spans more than 50 years. Santa Cruz.
THE AUTHORS IN A NUTSHELL EDITORIAL

TONY SACHS____________________________ When we think about a work of art, our integral texts both in language and
is a writer and a cocktail maker and expert. He frequently writes mind often flies to a painting, a flat window contents, were written by reliable sources,
for Robb Report and also for Serious Eat, The Daily Beast and that we always observe from the same especially experts in design and people
Complex, to name a few. He lives in Manhattan with his family. viewpoint, in order to enjoy it as well as who had the pleasure to know and work
possible. Although, we prefer to picture it with Bass.This magazine was inspired by
like an all round-sculpture, whose beauty Multiverso and we maintained its format
we can relish from infinite perspectives, and the characteristic color of the sixth
seizing its infinite potentiality. In fact, like monograph “Equal/Disequal”, which is
Parmenides theorized in VI century B.C., connected with this one, dedicated to
VALENTINA RE __________________________ there is not just one truth, one science, just Saul Bass, one man described by different
is Associate Professor at Link Campus University of Rome. In 2005 multiple opinions and points of view. We points of view. Giving the floor to the
she received a Ph. D. in Film Studies at the University of chose to address a polyhedral and versatile words of the authors, we hope that this
Bologna. She is a member of the editorial board of the journals designer such Saul Bass with this spirit, monograph, with an all round view of Saul
Cinéma & Cie and Cinergie and is also an editor. letting people who knew him, personally Bass, will direct the reader to develop his
or only through his work <!-- Generator: own personal opinion on a man who helped
Adobe Illustrator 21.1.0, SVG Export Plug- defined the modern idea of design.

WILL PERKINS__________________________
is a freelance and game journalist and public relations
professional based in Toronto, Ontario. He studied Political
Science and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto and has
contributed to such outlets as Yahoo Movies, Design Bureau, Kill
Screen, Maxim, Empire Movies and Ain’t it Cool News. He is also
an interviewer.
“I WANT
TO MAKE
BEAUTIFUL
THINGS, EVEN IF 11

NOBODY CARES”

SOUL OF BASS
Chiara Bellù
 Jennifer Bass
BECOMING SAUL
BASS

12 13
When I was very young, my father would them throughout the house. It was all great
often go into the office on the weekends, and fun, and was typical of my parents. There
I always loved to go with him. We had our was a magic in even the simplest thing they
ritual - he would sit down at his desk to work, did together. There were always fascinating
and I would head off to explore and embark things for my brother Jeff and I to play with
on one of my own projects. After several on my father’s desk, and in his office, from
hours he would find me and ask “How are dozens of Native American bear fetishes, all
you doing…?” and, “When do you think you lined up in rows, to hourglasses filled with
might be coming to a stopping point?,” as colored liquid that would rise to the top
though my projects, and work process, were chamber from the warmth of your hand. On
just as important as his. Then we would head the floor there were several printers’ trays
home, often swinging by a small shop on La that originally held lead type, but instead
Brea Avenue to buy flowers for my mom. We were filled with small treasures from around and work. His vision was that it would be full of
would begin by picking out a few stems. But the world that we could explore and arrange stories and would share the creative process,
then we’d carry away, and by the time we left however we wanted. And on his desk at through sketches and storyboards, as well as
it felt like we had emptied the entire store! home there was a wooden taboret that had the finished work. I was immediately struck
My mom would always be surprised and little drawers with dividers, each with neatly by a mixture of excitement and a strange fear.
delighted by the one or two bouquets we organized pens, pencils, a stop watch and How could my dad, with his huge presence,
gave her. Then we’d say “But wait, there’s one with colored pencils arranged by hue, all humor, warmth and energy, ever be captured in
more!” and return to the car again and perfectly sharpened. One day, when I was eight a book? And right then, I knew, that no matter
again and again. Even though she knew years old, I remember running down the stairs how impossible the idea seemed, if my father
what to expect, we all played along, as she and hearing my parents’ voices in the kitchen. didn’t do this book, someday I would have to
enthusiastically greeted each new bouquet Something my dad said made me sit down try my best to make it happen, not because
we presented.Then she and I would carefully on the stairs to listen. He was talking about a of the work, but because of the human
trim and arrange the flowers and distribute book he wanted to do someday about his life being he was and how much I loved him.
 Saul with Jennifer
c. 1987

Saul Bass was born on May 8, 1920 in the as well as a furrier. “What he did that was
East Bronx, New York City, the second quite extraordinary was draw flowers and
child of Jewish immigrants from Eastern birds. He did decorative paper cut-outs too.
Europe. His parents, Aaron and Pauline He would take paper, fold it eight, ten,
(née Feldman), were born in 1887 and 1889 twelve times and then do his little thing
respectively in the town of Satanov, Russia with scissors. Then we’d have that grand
(a Jewish shtetl on the Zbruck River in the moment where he unfolded the whole thing
Danube Delta) about 3000 miles northwest and it was just flowers and birds and trees,
of Odessa. They arrived in America in 1907 it was a whole world!”
at the height of immigration from Eastern Saul also wondered whether his passion
Europe. In the 1920 census Aaron is recorded for lettering and a desire to make art out
as a furrier working in a factory, but soon of letters came from his father’s brother,
after he opened a small shop and became a gravestone cutter who stayed in the old
known not only for his skill at matching and country. The young Saul was passionate
arranging pelts, but also for his generosity about sports, especially basketball.
14 and many kindnesses. Pauline, a home- He also loved movies, science fiction and 15
maker, had a gift for storytelling and for archaeology.
infusing ordinary occasions with a spirit of “I was attracted by the mystery of ancient
laughter and creative mischief. Saul, like civilizations - t h e m o re a n c i e n t a n d
his older sister Sylvia, inherited his parents’ unknown the more alluring, because it
warmth sense of fun and love of storytelling. allowed me to speculate and dream”.
In the 1920s and 1930s, New York City had Saul spent a great deal of time looking at
the largest concentration of Jews in the the collections and special exhibitions in
world. Thirty-two percent of these lived in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
the Bronx, a multi-ethnic borough of a million Museum of Natural History. His favorite
people, mostly in neighborhoods defined by pieces were artifacts from Egypt and
cultural and ethnic ties. other ancient civilizations. In later years,
When describing his neighborhood, Saul he remembered his days wandering these
said, “We lived on the ‘other side of the museum galleries as “some of the most
railroad tracks.’ In this case, the dividing delicious, indelible memories of my
line was a little park, called Crotona Park. childhood.” Only Yiddish was spoken at
On one side was the Grand Concourse, with home, and Saul did not learn English until
substantial residences and fairly well-to-do he started school. Like many children of
people, and on the other side of the park Jewish immigrants, he grew up within
were we.” This said, until the early 1930s, his a strongly Jewish culture in a city that
family fared better than many. epitomized American modernity.
Saul showed an early flair for art, and his parents He enjoyed the rituals of temple, and was
encouraged his talents. He wondered in later asked to sing occasionally when the cantor
years whether his visual sensibilities and love was away.
of working with his hands was inherited from Saul and his mother stayed with relatives in
his father, whom he described as an artist Chicago for the summer of 1934, the year
 the city was hosting the “Century of Progress” class, “Layout and Design for Industry”. It
World’s Fair (1933-34). 
There was much to was taught by Howard Trafton, a well-known
delight a fourteen-year-old boy at the fair, commercial artist highly skilled in illustration,
from fantastical light shows and the famous lettering and typography whose work was
sky ride to “eat as many pancakes as you influenced by European Modernism.
like for a dime” at the Quaker Oats pavilion. During the three-and-a-half years Saul
Saul graduated from James Monroe High studied with Trafton, he learned a great deal
School, where he excelled at art, sometime not only about modern art and design but
16 before his sixteenth birthday. also about the artists of the past. 17
He was arts editor of the school’s literary and The influence of Trafton’s freely brushed
art publication The Monroe Doctrine, and letters and crisp modern typography can
also of the yearbook. While at school he won be seen in Saul’s later work, but Saul mainly
two awards given by the School Art League recalled Trafton’s ability to explain the formal
of New York City - the Art in Trades Club qualities of art and his insistence on honing
medal for excellence in draftsmanship - and drawing skills. Whenever student designers
when he was seventeen he won the John asked Saul how best to prepare for their
Wanamaker annual drawing competition. future careers, he always said, “learn to
Outside school hours he worked as a delivery draw”. When Saul finished high school,
boy for Bucknoff’s delicatessen and painted unemployment was at a record high. Half of
signs for local fruit stalls and store windows. the young people in New York had no job.
Fortunately for Saul, a scout for the Art Saul was luckier than most, but his first two
Students League in Manhattan happened jobs were only loosely related to commercial
upon a storefront displaying some of his art. About a year after leaving school, he
signs, inquired as to their source, and prepared his portfolio and took it around
offered him a scholarship. Any vague hope town to advertising agencies. Saul landed
his parents had of Saul following his father’s a job in a small commercial art studio that
trade was set aside as his artistic talents designed trade ads for United Artists. Film
blossomed and he made clear his desire ads in those days were regarded as the
to pursue a career related to art. Saul’s dregs of the advertising business, but Saul
scholarship entitled him to one class per was happy; he was exactly where he wanted
week for six months at the Art Students to be. Composition study
League. He worked in the day and therefore, It was while he was working at Blaine One of Saul’s many sketches after exploring the
form, color and composition of works by Rubens.
in September 1936, enrolled in an evening Thompson that Saul met Gyorgy Kepes, the c. 1937
 Tylon Cold Wave
Saul’s first design award from the New York art Directors Club was
for this Bauhaus-influenced print ad stressing the perfect balance
achieved by using Tylon Cold Wave.
1945
18 Hungarian-born artist, designer and teacher, resonated with Saul’s political beliefs and Kepes’s views on the importance of the
19
who was to have an enormous influence artistic sensibilities, while the elevation of psychological responses to design.
upon him. graphics and moving images to the top of the The Modernist concern with paring away
Kepes helped transform the ways in which artistic hierarchy validated Saul’s own area the extraneous and the decorative marked
Saul thought about design, helping him make of work in ways that no one else had done. Saul’s work thereafter, and he developed
the transition from a talented designer with Many graphic designers besides Saul have greater facility with, among other things,
a burgeoning interest in Modernist graphics testified to the excitement of studying with montage and the expressive possibilities of
to a major player. It is difficult to know this most gifted and evangelical of teachers. lettering and typography.
exactly how well acquainted with Modern Reminiscing about the fast learning curve he Saul applied what he learned in Kepes’s
Movement design Saul was before he met experienced, Saul said that he felt as if he class to his work. His advertisement for a hair
Kepes. He was familiar with some modern had discovered “The World” and described product (Tylon Cold Wave), which resulted
art and design through Trafton’s classes, with Kepes as opening up a new world for him. from one of Kepes’s exercises based on
“modern” expression in French, German, “Trafton brought me into the room and led spatial tensions, won Saul his first award
and Soviet cinema, loved surrealism and me to the door. I tried it. But it wouldn’t from the New York Art Directors Club. Just as
greatly admired Man Ray, Cassandre, Paul open. And Kepes said, ‘To the left.’ I turned he was establishing a reputation in product
Rand and others whose designs appeared it. The door opened. He really just set me on advertising and collaborating with Kepes,
in Kepes’s book. fire…I felt like my pores were palpitating, you however, Saul was recalled to movie ads.
Kepes took a highly intellectual approach know?” Blaine Thompson was having trouble with
to deisgn. He believed that visual tensions Although the basis of his training with Kepes the Warner Brothers account and Saul was
produced by certain combinations of visual was in Bauhaus-style graphics and the “New needed to rescue the situation. Remaining
elements form the basis of a universal Typography,” Saul increased his familiarity on the company payroll, he was housed at
language of vision, and that graphic design with other aspects of European Modernism, Warner Brothers’ New York offices.
and motion pictures could play a major role from Cubism and Constructivism to De While there, Saul’s colleague, Paul Radin,
in changing the world because they were Stijl and Surrealism. Saul’s fascination with was asked to head thw new Los Angeles
less hidebound by tradition. Such ideas psychology ensured that he soaked up office of Buchanan and Company, the fifth-
 largest advertising agency in the United from the East Coast. “You can’t imagine
States, which undertook work for TWA (Trans how beautiful it was then - clean beaches,
World Airlines) and Paramount Pictures. not much traffic and endless sunshine. The
On Radin’s recommendation, in 1946 Saul Garden of Allah, the legendary hotel on the
was offered a huge salary increase to work Sunset Strip where the agency had rented
as art director/pitchman in Hollywood. accommodation for me, was as exotic as
Saul recognized that, although New York any film set.” At Buchanan and Company,
remained the center of the film advertising Saul continued to learn from working to
industry, changes were afoot that promised short deadlines on a range of advertising for
new opportunities for designers. In New York journals as well as popular magazines. For
there was a gentleman’s agreement that the most part, his experience in Hollywood
a studio did not renege on an advertising in the late 1940s and early 1950s confirmed
contract even if it disliked the campaign. his opinion that the abysmal state of film
Buchanan and Company, however, felt that advertising lay in the inability of studio
the new independent producers and directors publicity executives to credit cinema-goers
could not be relied upon to adhere to this with intelligence or taste.
agreement and that someone was needed But the nature of films was changing, partly
to deal with them directly on their home turf. in terms of content but also because of
Saul’s contract was only for two years, but he competition from television - opening up
felt he had to seize the moment. new possibilities for designers like Saul.
With a booming postwar economy, the glamour
of Hollywood and a garden-like landscape
nestled between pristine mountains and
the blue Pacific, Los Angeles, in 1946 was
a vision of splendor to a young art director
20 21

Portrait proof sheet

c. 1960
 Pamela Haskin
SAUL, CAN YOU
MAKE ME A TITLE?

22 Up until his recent death, Saul Bass continued ascend and descend, mimicking elevators the slightest detail in his films, extended a Arm. Bass’s publicity design was so dramatic 23
to carve his artistic signature on the movies. in motion; white lines invade the screen, hitherto unknown freedom to Bass. Said Bass, that Preminger asked him to create the film’s
Martin Scorsese aptly described the power of a simulating the grid pattern in the skyscraper “Once we are agreed on a visual point of view, opening title sequence.
Bass title sequence when he said,”His titles that dominates the opening shot. Another of he gives us a great deal of freedom - almost Bass went on to design titles, prologues,
are not simply unimaginative ‘identification Bass’s famed transformations is the eyeball total at times.” and epilogues for films such as Anatomy of
tags’ - as in many films - rather, they are that swirls into the vortex at the opening Bass’s dream-like allegory for Casino begins a Murder, Carmen Jones, and West Side
integral to the film as a whole. When his work of Vertigo. Martin Scorsese’s most recent just after the Robert De Niro character gets Story and also to shoot and direct segments
comes up on the screen, the movie itself film, Casino, features not only the last title blown up at the film’s open. The body of the within films. These second-unit sequences
truly begins.” In his review of the film Walk sequence that Bass would make before his protagonist takes flight, travelling upward have become cinematic milestones in their
on the Wild Side, critic Andrew Sarris wrote death, but to many film-makers exhibited his through a sky of flames as if on its way to own right; they include the final battle scene
that the Bass credits were actually the only best contemporary work. Some of this success heaven. Yet Bass abruptly redirects the body in Spartacus, all race sequences in Grand
reason for seeing the movie. may be due to a certain familiarity that Bass of the gangster downward in a visually Prix, and the famed shower sequence in Psycho.
When musing to himself as to whether the had come to enjoy with the director. After all, rivetting interpretation of Dante’s descent In 1973 Bass directed the sci-fi feature Phase
cat who appears in the opening sequence had the title sequence for Casino was the fourth into hell. Using various camera speeds, IV - a story about oversized, world-conquering
given a better performance than the star, Sarris that Bass and his wife, Elaine, had made for lens distortions, and superimposures, Bass ants. In all, Bass’ list of credits includes over
noted that “The cat was directed by Bass Scorsese. Bass had already created the title manipulates images of casino marquee lights 60 films. Saul Bass also began collaborating
while Miss Fonda was directed by Edward sequences to Scorsese’s three previous and other icons of Las Vegas nightlife to on film projects with his wife and partner,
Dmytryk.” films, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and The Age foreshadow the character’s tragic journey Elaine.
One marked characteristic of the Bass title is of Innocence. Scorsese has often said that within the film. Of his opening sequence, They began making their own short films,
that its images undergo a journey whereby he has been a longtime fan of Saul Bass’s Bass commented, “We attempted to create and, in 1969, they won an Oscar for Why
they are transformed into the unexpected. work and that he was “blown away” by the a metaphor for the Las Vegas of betrayal, Man Creates, a combination of live action
A famous example is the flower petal in the opening sequences to The Man with the twisted morality, greed, hubris, and in the end, and animation which takes a philosophical
opening sequence to Bonjour Tristesse, Golden Arm and Psycho. self-destruction.” Bass, a graphic designer look into man’s creative impulse. Bass and
which transforms several times before In their work together, a mutual admiration by trade, launched his film career in 1955 his wife continued to make award-winning
resolving into a teardrop. In the opening to developed between the two men. Scorsese, after having designed the print graphics for short films for the international festival circuit
Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, bars of text well known for his tight direction over even Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden until his death at age 75 this past May.
 Posters
A selection of the posters made
by Saul Bass for Otto Preminger

You made 11 films with Otto Preminger, When I began to do titles many many years
24 25
yet you remain best known for your work ago – the dark ages, when designers lived in
with Alfred Hitchcock on Psycho, Vertigo, caves – I went through a very intense learning
and North by Northwest. experience with some extraordinary film-
makers.
Did I actually make 11 films with Preminger? I’m referring to the Wylers, the Wilders, the
After the sixth, I stopped counting. Otto had Hitchcocks, and the Premingers. It was an
a vision. A true artistic, visual vision. He extraordinary experience, cutting your eye
believed that he knew what he knew and teeth within that framework. So I began
he believed that what he knew, together thinking about what to do at the beginning
with what would come out of our work, was of a film. Obviously, the point of any title is
worth defending to the death. to support the film. As you know, I created
He also had the bullheadedness to take that a lot of stuff, which, it would be fair to say,
position and the clout to pull it off. Stanley constituted a reinvention of the film title.
Kubrick is that way too, but I don’t know My initial thoughts about what a title could do
anybody else quite like it. There are many was to set mood and to prime the underlying
directors today who have enormous clout, core of the film’s story; to express the story
but they don’t have a graphic vision. They in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as
care about the advertising, but they don’t a way of conditioning the audience, so that
start with a point of view. And if they have a when the film actually began, viewers would
point of view, they’re not sure enough about already have an emotional resonance with it.
it, or don’t care enough to make a federal I had a strong feeling that films really began
case out of it. You can see the result in the on the first frame. This was, of course, back
state of film graphics and advertising today. when titles were strictly typography – mostly
In many cases the advertising is quite bad typography – and constituted the
effective, but ultimately, unmemorable. period when people were settling in, going to
26 27
restrooms, or involved in chitchat. I just felt boil in oil. See the virgins dancing in the marquee without the name of the film. beginning of the film?
that this was a period that could work for the temple of doom. See Krakatoa blow its top This was a very powerful thing and really set We agreed that it would. But here’s what
film. Otto Preminger agreed with me and we – that kind of thing. If you didn’t like one the industry to thinking. The film did very happened.
took a shot at it. image, you’d like another. The idea of having well – for reasons that may or may not have When I presented my storyboard for the film
My actual entry into film began when Otto a film expressed within the framework of had to do with the symbol. But understand title to Otto, I naturally presented a series of
asked me to design a title for The Man with one single, reductive statement was a very that in the parlance of the film industry, if a static frames – a series of abstract bars
the Golden Arm. This opportunity grew out daring notion in the 50s. film does well, naturally it’s a great film. If it that moved in configurations until, finally,
of my having designed the original graphic It was a particularly scary notion for distributors does badly, it’s the fault of the advertising they formed the arm. That was the title. I
symbol for the film. The symbol for the film and filmmakers alike. You were saying, of campaign – everybody knows that. presented this series of static images simply
turned out to be about as difficult to accept course, that you could make one statement Otto, I have to say, truly believed that the to show what the various configurations
as the film itself. that would be sufficiently provocative and graphic made a very important difference. might be at any given moment. Otto looked
It also broke from the general point of view true to the film, and that would sell the film. at the series and thought it was terrific. He
about how you sold films. The notion that a At the time, and this was to Otto’s credit, he How did you decide to translate the arm was very happy with it, but assumed that
single visual element, good, bad, or indifferent, didn’t flinch when this occurred. into an animated sequence for the film’s each independent image would remain
could become a statement for a film is not opening? static. I was horrified. I said, “No way!” We
a notion that existed before The Man with What was the response to the limb which got into quite a fight. Words were exchanged
the Golden Arm. Before that period, almost you designed to represent the addict in Otto and I looked at the arm. We thought and I stormed out of his office.
all film ads, no, all film ads, used a potpourri The Man with the Golden Arm? that if it was correct for the ad campaign – I’ve mellowed somewhat in recent years.
approach. and it was in the sense that its distorted form However, if something I truly believe in is in
Advertisers threw everything into the pot, The symbol of the arm was an expression of was a sort of metaphor for this disjointed, danger of getting loused up, I will still resist
using the theory that, as a filmgoer, you would my general point of view, which is a reductive schizophrenic life of the addict – if it was to the death, without being inflammatory, of
find something in the ad that would inspire one. It just so happens that the arm achieved in fact appropriate and powerful for that course.
you to see the film. I used to call this the “See, such a currency that when the film opened in purpose, wouldn’t it then be appropriate I left Otto’s office with a great sense of virtue,
See, See” approach: See the missionaries New York the symbol alone appeared on the to have this image set up the mood at the and returned to my office. I sat at my desk
28 and calm down a little bit. I began to think.... – I had to. I had to become totally fearless, Having gone through all that with Preminger, territory in the West.
29
“Static images,” I said to myself. There because if I entered into the room intending I then asked myself whether the title could My technique was to use a series of contrasting
might be a certain kinetic effect with a series to preserve our relationship, I would have function in some other way. I experimented conditions: I first set up extreme long shots
of staccato images – it might work. It might violated what I thought made sense and with having the title deal with the time “before” of the stagecoach and juxtaposed these
even be good. I began to like Otto’s idea. The what was right. This resulted in some very the film. I did that with William Wyler’s The with extreme close-ups of the coach, the
phone rang – it was Otto. “Saul,” he said, volatile scenes. But I must say, to Otto’s Big Country. There, I dealt with the three- hooves of the horse, and the wheels, all of
“I’ve been thinking about it. You are right. credit, he was always the one to make up. month period before the story begins, in which were in furious activity.
The sequence must move!” “Wait a minute, He would call me and say, “Saul, why are which Gregory Peck crosses the country in a Then we cut to the tiny stagecoach moving
Otto,” I protested, “Your whole idea of the you so upset? Come by and have some stagecoach. This approach was extremely an imperceptible 1/8 inch across the screen,
kinetic ... “ “No,” he interrupted. “I insist!” He breakfast.” useful, not simply because it gave you signaled by a little expanding cloud of dust.
became very upset. We had another fight. I am a little nostalgic about my relationship background for the story, but because it The constant intercutting of these two
Finally, he demanded, “The title must move!” with Otto. After a while, after the sixth or contributed to your immediate, start-up conditions reinforced the point of this title.
“Ok,” I said. seventh picture, I can’t remember, the whole understanding of the dramatic situation. What you got was a sense of the enormous
Here’s the key of the thing. One might ask, thing became a sort of ritualistic gavotte. We A key ingredient of this film was that this was energy it took to move you an infinitesimal
“Why stay with a guy like this?” Did I need would have these enormous fights in which a very isolated community in which there was distance across that vast expanse. When
this? Curiously enough, the answer is “Yes.” everybody got killed, but in which nobody a relative suspension of Law. Here, ideas of the stagecoach arrives in this community,
I discovered that what we wound up with died. It had a certain richness about it. I did Law were embodied in simple perceptions you know that you’re in the middle of “The
together was better than what I started a lot of good work. of “fair” and “not fair.” Law was made by Big Country.” You understand the emptiness
with on my own. Otto was a very tough and individuals, not by a system of thinking based of the surround.
bullheaded kind of person. He was difficult In The Man with the Golden Arm, your upon a canon of residual thought. So it was I used a similar approach in The Victors.
and opinionated. In a funny way it worked animated title underscores the predicament very important to convey how isolated and For the title sequence, I created a montage
for me. My world up to that point had been and broken character of the main character remote this community really was. of documentary footage and newsreel footage
reasonably polite and gracious. But with a in the film. Can you describe other ways in I helped to set that up by projecting the showing what life was like in Germany during
guy like Otto, I had to learn how to fight. which you have used a main title sequence notion of the amount of time and energy it the 25 years before the story began. The final
I walked into every meeting prepared to quit to support the dramatic narrative? took to get from the East Coast to this little image of the montage is Hitler’s triumphant
 Psycho
Frame taken by the film Psycho
1960

30 dance in Compiègne in 1940, after the defeat sequence, you know.

31
of France, which is when the story begins. We My intent was to create a bloodless murder –
pick up the story in the middle of a march, the blood going down the drain at the end
which is in fact the final image of the of the sequence was to be the only blood
montage. I wanted to create a sense of the in the scene. Hitch then wanted to have a
inexorability of German history and the shot with a spray of blood on Janet’s chest.
events leading to the Third Reich. He also insisted on the shot with the knife in
I used this technique again in my opening her belly (which was actually a pull away
for Frankenheimer’ s Grand Prix. In this case, from her belly, and then printed backwards).
I dealt with the very moments before a Monte I felt these shots ruined the purity of the
Carlo race. I was interested in what takes sequence. I was kind of astonished at my
place in the preparations for the race. The reaction, because Hitch was, after all, the great
tension. The anxiety. The little nervous master.
technical adjustments and gestures that the I also shot and directed all the races in Grand
drivers go through. Prix. By this time, I had really begun to deal
with the nature of imagery itself.
You’ve also directed special sequences I set the problem for myself that is probably the
within the films. central creative problem in all communication
How did these opportunities come about? forms – how to take ordinary experience, how
to take things we know, and look at them in a
Well, what happened is that several directors way that enables us to see them anew. I did
came to me and asked me to get involved in that in Walk on the Wild Side with the cats.
Psycho the film itself. That’s how the final battle in The cat is an appropriate metaphor for a film
Spartacus came about. I also shot footage about passions in a brothel.
for Hitch on Psycho. I worked on the shower I used a black cat and a white cat – the pure
 and the impure. up watching your films. How did this designing titles for other film-makers? happy and do things that nobody else will
Cats prowl and fight, they conjure up the whole transition come about? notice but us. We like the notion of the bottom
aspect of dark street life which is central to Our point of view is simply that we love doing of the table being finished even though
the story. I wanted the audience to look at a A few years ago several directors got in touch titles because they are discreet. But there is nobody sees it. There’s a Yiddish word for it,
cat as though it were an exotic creature – with Elaine and me and asked if we’d like one problem peculiar to titles. Titles are “meshugas,” which is “craziness.” I admire
a saber-toothed tiger, or a mammoth, or to do some titles for them. One of them was the last thing to be considered in the film obsessiveness in others. It’s there in Stanley
an animal they’d never seen before. The idea Jim Brooks, another was Billy Crystal, and production process. Kubrick, who is an extraordinarily obsessive
for the title was to transform the ordinary then Marty Scorsese. Marty saw a title we Unless the director and the producer, when person. It drives everybody who works with
into the extraordinary. I wanted them to recall did for Jim Brooks on War of the Roses. He they start out, really feel that having a title him crazy, but that’s O.K. That’s the nature
what it was like to be a child, beyond one’s called us and said, “Saul, can you make me a sequence is important, they don’t have of the beast. I’m that way with people who
earliest memory; to recall what it was like title?” I said, “Marty, you bet your ass.” We’re anything in the budget for it, except for some work for me – I’m very obsessive and people
to look at this exotic animal, a cat, for the now on our fourth picture with him – Casino. kind of mundane, mechanical thing. This is who work for me think I’m a little meshuga.
first time. I also used this idea in the film 9 We’re also doing an opening for a BFI/ a problem, but it isn’t a very big problem for
Hours to Roma, in which I dealt with the notion Channel 4 documentary called A Personal Elaine and me, because the directors that
of Time. I actually took the camera into the Journey Through American Movies with we work with are interested enough in the
face of a clock, examining its surface and Martin Scorsese. Marty’s doing a personal beginning. They know they are going to get
activity in ways that made you reconsider the view of the films he encountered as he grew a dynamic title sequence, and know full well
Western construct of Time. up and developed as a film-maker. that it will take a few hours to do it! But in two
These were the filmic issues with which I It’s for TV so I made a very simple thing - a line or three months you have a nice little piece
was wrestling and which were part of my caricature of Marty’s profile. His eyebrows of film and you’ve been involved in a very
learning process. are positively aflame. I wanted to capture dynamic process.
some of his great energy and magnetism. Whereas even a short film is one or two
You’ve worked with the forefathers of years of work.
American cinema. You now work with You and Elaine continue to make award- We love doing titles. We do them in a nice,
the generation of filmmakers who grew winning short films. Why do you go on obsessive way – we futz with them until we’re
32 33
 Rick Poynor
A LIFE IN
PICTURES

34 Google results are not the subtlest way of historian Pat Kirkham runs to 424 big pages people simply couldn’t believe that all the A week later, he admitted to Bass that the
35
assessing significance, but the numbers are and has endnotes the size of small essays. creativity stemmed from one person,” says design was growing on him. Lou Dorfsman,
certainly some kind of guideline. So who, if At last the man receives his due. The quality Art Goodman, Bass’s right-hand man at Saul creator of the CBS eye logo, recalled that
we use this admittedly crude instrument, is of Bass’s work in either sphere would be Bass & Associates in Los Angeles. “They saw Bass’s presentations were “second to none
the most famous graphic designer? enough to maintain his reputation as one of how prolific he was and thought it had to be – the finest I ever witnessed in half a century
We might guess Paul Rand or perhaps, even the 20th century’s greatest graphic designers. coming from others. What they didn’t realise in the design profession”.
today, David Carson. We’d be wrong on both But at a time when graphic designers routinely was just how well organised he was; he had On one occasion, recovering from hip
counts. While both designers are, relatively talk about design’s ‘expanded’ role and their that office buttoned down so tight precisely surgery, Bass invited advertising agency
speaking, huge, the most often repeated ability, or at least desire, to move freely so that he could concentrate on designing personnel to a presentation in his hospital
graphic designer’s name – by a giant margin, between disciplines, Bass stands before us and making films.” Bass was also brilliant room. Everyone wore masks and gowns
according to Google – is Saul Bass. Perhaps as one of graphic design’s most remarkably at handling other people. Between 1954 and Bass delivered his latest ideas for a
that shouldn’t surprise us. Bass is a special versatile talents – and he was operating half and 1979 he worked on 13 title sequences beer commercial as though this set-up was
case among graphic designers, with a massive a century ago. for Otto Preminger, an intimidating director entirely normal and they were meeting in his
foot planted in two highly visible fields. He Great filmmakers took Bass seriously as an with a strong understanding of design. Bass office.
is both a filmmaker of great originality, still artist in his own right. Hitchcock, an autocrat had been brought up to behave politely, The popular view of Bass’s titles tends to
regarded by many as the finest designer of of the film set, allowed him to direct the but soon realised that, “with a guy like Otto be dominated by sequences with highly
film titles in the history of the movies, and famous shower scene in Psycho. In the 1990s, I had to learn how to fight. I walked into reduced graphic shapes: the moving white
a master of corporate identity responsible Martin Scorsese ceded his control as auteur every meeting prepared to quit – I had to.” bars of The Man With The Golden Arm
for some of America’s most familiar and and gave Saul and Elaine Bass complete In another war story, Bass described how (1955); the coloured spirals of Vertigo (1958);
effortlessly accomplished trademarks freedom for the four title sequences they in a client meeting he told Stanton Avery, the iconic body outline of Anatomy of a
and logos. Bass died in 1996 and the real produced for his films, showing exceptional boss of Avery International, that he was Murder (1959); the torn paper that reveals
surprise is that we have had to wait so long trust in his illustrious collaborators. How mistaken about a trademark proposal – the titles of Bunny Lake is Missing (1965).
for a monograph covering every aspect of did Bass accomplish all this? Like other “Stan, you are wrong.” After a moment of But Bass, often working with his wife Elaine
his career. Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design successful designers, he was blessed with silence, Avery deferred to this professional – “the only person whose artistic judgments
by his daughter Jennifer Bass and design some essential professional skills. “Many advice, though he was clearly not satisfied. and sense of appropriateness I completely
 Title sequence frames and sketches Steven Spielberg remembers the “profofound impression” made
Frame taken by Walk on the Wild Side (1962). upon him as a sixteen-year-old by the titles for Walk on the Wild
Side. He recalls, “I attempted to mimic Mr. Bass, using a 8mm
camera and my dog on a leash walking along the narrow retaining
wall outside my home in Arizona. In trying to make my own movie..I
made a foul error. I used a dog because we didn’t have a cat. And as
everyone knows, dogs are somewhat less sure-footed than felines.”

36 37

masterpieces. The film won an Oscar in 1968 an enigmatic art film, leading to box-office
for best documentary short and in 2002 it failure when it was wrongly marketed as a
was selected for the National Film Registry horror movie. Phase IV has some spellbinding
of significant films. images and special effects – smooth-sided
Its opening sequence, titled The Edifice, is ant skyscrapers in the desert; close-ups of
particularly memorable. The camera ascends ants with ingeniously tinted bodies – and it
a towering cartoon building – drawn by Art is impossible to watch this haunting film
Goodman – encapsulating key moments in conceived with Bass’s brilliant eye without
history, accompanied by snatches of humorous wishing he had been able to make more
dialogue. In 1974, Bass directed his most feature films. Although it works as it stands,
ambitious film and his only feature, Phase IV. Phase IV is missing an extended epilogue,
This isn’t currently available in the UK, but Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained. To judge
the American DVD is worth tracking down. by the seven storyboards shown in the new
The film takes a standard B-movie science book, this hallucinatory sequence of images
fiction theme – what if the ants started to would have lifted the film to another level.
take over? – but interprets this in the style of But Bass, a mobile powerhouse of ideas
 and invention, had so much going on that If there is an oversight, it’s probably more
he doesn’t seem to have minded these likely to be found among the public than
unexplored avenues. designers, who revere Bass’s identity work.
He was entirely sanguine about moving away In Japan, he was held in such high esteem
from titles in the mid-1960s – the dry phase that in 1989 United Airlines ran a magazine
was to last until the late 1980s – because ad with a picture of him holding up a model
this was the period when opportunities in of a United jet with the line, “Good designs
corporate identity came thick and fast. Bass have wings”. The copy went on to describe
brought the same sensitivity to interpreting him as “a God of corporate identity”.
the needs of companies and their CEOs that If that sounds way too ponderous, we might
he had brought to films and their directors. consider the case of Quaker Oats. Other
His design credits form an era-defining roll designers had proposed throwing out the
call of corporate America: Bell Telephone famous Quaker Man in the hat and replacing
System, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, him with an abstract letter ‘Q’. Bass thought
AT&T, Warner Communications, Exxon. He this would be a serious error. He simplified the
also designed identities for Girl Scouts of image and suggested calling the company
America, Boys Clubs of America, and the just Quaker. It was exactly the right thing to
YWCA. Pat Kirkham suggests that because do. “I like the hand of the designer to show,”
Bass’s film work generated so much popular he said later. “I like it to be powerful. I like to
attention, his impact (with a few other have some humanity in it.”
designers) on the development of a rationalist That’s why his body of work still speaks to
approach to corporate identity might have us decades later. It has humanity.
been overlooked. “In sheer volume as well
as the quality of the work,” she argues, “Saul
was possibly the most prolific designer in
38 this field over the period 1960-96, and one 39
of the most influential.”

Epilogue storyboards
A selection of storyboard sketches for a powerful
extended epilogue that was never made.
1973
 “INTERESTING
THINGS HAPPEN
WHEN THE
CREATIVE
IMPULSE IS
MOVI(E)NG
40 41

CULTIVATED
WITH CURIOSITY, THOUGHTS
FREEDOM AND
INTENSITY”

Sofia Peracchi
 Martin Scorsese
MARTIN SCORSESE
ON THE TALENT OF
SAUL BASS

42 43
Before I ever met Saul Bass, before we wor- from contentment to thoughtful melancholy.
ked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His It has something to do with the economical
designs, for film titles and company logos and beauty and elegance of the design, and
record albums and posters, defined an era. In the range of feeling it contains. In a way,
essence, they found and distilled the poetry of it describes a mental space we all share.
the modern, industrialized world. They gave I’m speaking in the present tense here because
us a series of crystallized images, expressions Saul’s designs, the ones he executed on his
of who and where we were and of the future own and then with his wife and creative par-
ahead of us. They were images you could dre- tner, Elaine, speak so eloquently that they
am on. They still are. address all of us, no matter when, or where,
For instance, I look at Saul’s design for the al- you were born.
bum Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of When I was leafing through Saul Bass, A life in
Color, and I’m immediately drawn into a sha- Film & Design, a new book about Saul’s work, https://fontsinuse.com/
red sense of the world at that moment, 1956. I came to a section devoted to the trade-
There was a vision of progress then, of hope, marks he designed (for Fuller Paints, Conti-
of a newer, better world. And there was an idea nental and United Airlines, the updates of Bell
that everything could be streamlined, and that Telephone and Quaker Oats, and Getty and “For Frank Sinatra’s Tone Poems of Color, Bass offered his own poem of co-
we would all benefit. AT&T and Minolta… it boggles the mind), and
lour, line and pattern with Sinatra later admiring Bass’ ability to encapsulate
Now, how is the future as we imagined it in read this quote from him: “The ideal trademark
‘entire films and albums in a few brush strokes.’ The strength of his designs
1956 contained in this beautiful album cover is one that is pushed to its at most limits in
design? It’s a series of rectangular colour terms of abstraction and ambiguity, yet is still remains testament to the fact that they still have resonance; the melancholic
bars (resembling the Cuisenaire rods they readable. Trademarks are usually metaphors mood and streamlined hues of this particular cover artwork would have equal
used to teach maths to children), in hues sug- of one kind or another. And are, in a certain standing among contemporary cover designs today.”
gesting an array of moods, from warm to cool, sense, thinking made visible.” - Lucia Davis, AnOther, 2011
 “I HAD A PLACEMENT FOR THE CREDIT BUT To me, that encompasses Saul’s genius, be-
cause that’s the way we take in reality a lot
of the time: feelings push perceptions to the
He would look at the film in question, and he
would understand the rhythm, the structure,
the mood – he would penetrate the heart of

DIDN’T HAVE THE RIGHT LETTERING. I HAD THE limits of abstraction and ambiguity, but the
world around us stays readable, somehow.
the movie and find its secret.
That’s what he did with Vertigo and those

RIGHT MUSIC CUE BUT SOMETHING

Thinking made visible. spirals that just keep endlessly forming –
Saul and I worked together on four occasions. that’s the madness at the heart of the pictu-
The first time was on Goodfellas. I had an re, the beautiful nightmare vortex of James

WASN’T RIGHT. I JUST DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO idea of what I wanted for the titles, but could
not quite get it. Someone suggested Saul,
and my reaction was: “Do we dare?” After
Stewart’s affliction. And so, when I showed
him and Elaine Goodfellas, they understood
what we were driving at right away: the
DO WITH IT. I WAS WATCHING A MOVIE CALLED all, this was the man who designed the tit-
le sequences for Vertigo, Psycho, Anatomy
speed, the flash, the sense of life soaring
along and then jumping the tracks. The

BIG AND I SEE THE END CREDITS - ELAINE

of a Murder, Advise and Consent, Sparta- simplicity of what they did with those titles
cus, Ocean’s 11, and so many other pictures astonished me, because they could only
that defined movies and moviegoing for me. have been done by someone with a refined
44
AND SAUL BASS. I SAID TO MY PRODUCER, When we were growing up and seeing mo-
vies, we came to recognize Saul’s designs,
and I remember the excitement they gene-
understanding of what we were trying to do.
But then, I was equally astonished each
time we worked together, all over again –
45

‘DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD VENTURE TO rated within us: like Bernard Herrmann’s
scores, they added a whole extra dimension
by the sinuous reflections in the Cape Fear
sequence, the blooming flowers, again and

CALL AND SEE IF THEY WOULD DO THIS?’ to whatever picture they were part of.
They made the picture instantly special. And
they didn’t stand apart from the movie, they
again, under layers of lace for The Age of
Innocence, the silhouetted man tumbling
through a neon hell for Casino. I always be-
drew you into it, instantly. Because, putting came caught up in the wonder of Saul and
it very simply, Saul was a great film-maker. Elaine’s work, all over again.

SAUL’S RESPONSE: ‘WERE WE INTERESTED IN

DOING TITLES FOR MARTIN SCORSESE? YOU
BET YOUR ASS WE WERE.’ ”
- Martin Scorsese
46 47

Title Sequence
The Age of Innocence (1983)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Barbara De Fina
48 49

Title Sequence
Cape Fear (1991)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Barbara De Fina
 Kyle Cooper

THE LOOK OF
SAUL BASS
TCM piece celebrating the art of Saul Bass
featuring title designer Kyle Cooper.
Produced by Scott McGee, edited by Gary Slawit-
schka, created in 2004.
50 51
There is a similar idea in the shots for North
by Northwest. It’s always fascinating for me
that these very simple things can set the per-
fectly appropriate tone, in both of the movies.
Here he set a great tone, independently of

TRY TO
the level of complexity of how they have
been made. I think they work perfectly for
that reason and that is a seamless payoff,

REACH FOR A SIMPLE

from the graphic interpretation of the building
to the live action interpretation. It’s very smart
and had been much imitated. It teases the
watcher, and gets him just interested enough
so he really wants to find out what happens.
I love how the titles go somewhere in Vertigo:
it is not repetitive, but starts from one place,
VISUAL PHRASE THAT TELLS
goes to another and ends in another place
again. It starts with the eye, a photographic
treatment, and you go into her eyes, with
YOU WHAT THE PICTURE
such a powerful symbol with so many as-
sociation. In the same way Psyco has the
broken lines to suggest Anthony Perkins
IS ALL ABOUT AND EVOKES
dysfunction, the spiraling graphic inside this
person head communicates this off-balance
in the nature of the character in Vertigo. You
THE ESSENCE OF THE STORY.
go into the eye and you come out, it has a
beginning, a middle and a end, I really appre-
ciate this in Saul Bass’ titles.
For Walk on the wild side, there is a shot of
two eyes of a cat, and then it crosses them
-Saul Bass
walking with a very vertical shot. There is a
lot of graphic designer’s thought given to
compositionally what’s happening in the fra-
me, how the juxtaposition just work.

Title Sequence,
The man with the
golden arm (1955)
54 55
 Jennifer Bass

WHY MAN “As the chapter [Fooling Around]

ends, the nattator asks, where do
ideas come from? The answer:
CREATES ‘From looking at one thing and
eeing another, fooling around,
playing with possibilities’. ”

- Jan-Christopher Horak, Saul Bass:

Anatomy of Film Design

56 57
The twenty-nine-minute Why Man Creates, ople that you were serious about providing a
a wonderfully creative film about creativity it- creative environment.’ It took some time to
self, is one of the most successful short films turn them around.
ever made, in terms of number of prints sold Saul and Elaine wanted the film to “express
and award won. It was, perhaps surprisingly, to the audience how it feels and what it looks
commissioned by Kaiser Aluminum & Chemi- like to work creatively in a committed life
cal Company, Vice President of Advertising sense… It’s an motional film, not an explai-
and Public Affairs, Robert Sandberg, believed ning type of film.” Episodic in structure and
strongly that creativity and imagination were laden in humor, the film is composed of a
lifeblood of change and that business should series of sequences that illuminate thecharacter
show itself to be socially responsible. He per- and contradictions of the creative process.
suaded the “top Brass” to invest $250,000 in a In the sequence called The Edifice, Saul and
film about ideas and the importance of ima- Elaine offer “an animate history of the wor-
gination within the company. After a year of ld man has built on ideas”; Fooling around
long search, the commission went to Saul. illustrates “how ideas can begin in the play
As Saul recalled: “Kaiser’s theory was if they of the creative mind”; The Process shows
could show how aluminium was being used the young creator struggling “to dominate
creatively and how Kaiser was a hell of a material which resists, fights and develops
great pace to be, then that would be exci- a life of its own, with timely advice from cre-
ting for a creative engineer or scientist. But ators of the past”; The Judgment illustrates
we said, ‘The best thing you could do is deal how “society makes its contributions to the
with the subject of creativity directly, in an creative process”; in A Parable, “the fate of an
exciting way. By the mere commitment to unaverage bouncing ball throws some light on
such a film you’d be signaling to these pe- the creator’s place in the world”.
Soc5 2 4 - 2 2 - 3 8 62 2 3 3
4 0
3 6
2
ial Srecurity phone 168
m b e T e l e 8 76 - 0 9 3 0
N u Why man creates
(1968)
Illustration inspired from
the segment Fooling Around,
second section of Why man
creates (1968)

58 59
A Digression is “a statement o the possible I don’t fault the attitude of society, I merely “Where do ideas come?”m the film offers the showed about half of it as an example of
relationship between ideas and institutions”; descrive it. Society has many good reasons answer “from looking at one thing and seeing corporate responsibility; it also ran the
The Search offers “a close-up view of the to be reluctant to accept new ideas. Many are another”, a recurrent theme in the world of ping-pong sequence at the time of President
patient process by which scientists develop impractical or dangerous. But some of them Saul and Elaine. Nixon’s “ping-pong diplomacy” in China.
new ideas”; while The Mark uses examples are the ones that advance society, make it At first, Kaiser’s top executive were uneasy For years, the film was a staple oof high
drawn from the history of art, science, reli- move ahead, make it come to grips with thin- about the film, especially the innovative disjun- school educations and has become one of
gion, politics and technology” to explore the gs it has to understand tp solve in order to ctures, obvious non sequiturs and staccato the most widely seen short film ever made.
question of why men create. survive and grow.” montages. In an effort to reassure the client, Why Men Creates won the 1968 Oscar for
In the early stages, the film lacked a lin- This brilliant and quirkily funny film deserves Saul sent copies od the film to the chief exe- best documentary short, and in 2002 it was
king device. Then Elaine suggested filming a study of its own. Segments include a snail cutives of two corporations for which he had inducted into the National Film Registry of
Saul’s hand in the act of writing to connect talking about digression, the invention of zero already worked - Frank Stanton at CBS and “culturally, historically, or aesthetically
the sequences, because this way they could and a high-spirited, rebellious ping-pong ball. Harold Williams, then president of the Hunt significant films”.
convey some of the hesitancies and the Saul supplied the voiceover, and it is easy Foods and later of the J.Paul Getty Trust - as
indecisions that accompany all the creative for those who knew him to see Saul’s own well as to a reporter at the Wall Street Journal
process. When discussing the film Saul spirit in this ball, which bounces off a pro- who wrote on corporate affairs. Their approval
commented: “The creative process is un- duction line, having been rejected to boun- helped calm nerves at Kaiser and the film
predictable, desperate, yet disciplined kind cing too high. The ball bounces through a went on to become a major corporate asset.
of activity. It has the discipline of order but world of less adventurous ping-pong balls Frank Stanton remembered the incident with
the guts of what happens comes from other and finally bounces right out of the frame. amusement; “I really loved the film, and
wellsprings. I think the statements in this film The cracked eggs gag uses novel images remember thinking I’d love to see that on
are true - of how the creative process feels, to introduce thought-provoking propositions: television. And oddly enough, it did actually
of how society tends to view the creative one has a yellow yolk, another is filled with come to pass”.
guy, of the importance of what he does in a thick black goo, while a butterfly emer- Indeed, The smothers Brothers ran segments
spite of society’s general tendency to reject. ges from yet another. When someone asks and finally the whole film, while 60 minutes
 Pat Kirkham

THE CASE:
THE SHOWER
SCENE

60 61
Despite Hitchcock’s strong implication that exactly what we’re going to do,” and Stefano
Bass did not work on the shower scene, a gre- sent Bass each section of the script as it was
at deal of evidence exists to the contrary; from finished. Janet Leigh told Donald Spoto that
testimonies by people working on the film to “the planning of the shower scene was left
the visuals themselves, it points to Bass as the up to Saul Bass, and Hitchcock followed his
person who visualized and storyboarded that storyboard precisely. Because of this... [the
section of the script, a section prioritized by Hi- shooting] went very professionally,” and she
tchcock for special handling because he knew told Rebello that “Mr. Hitchcock showed Saul
that audience expectations would be shattered Bass’s storyboards to me quite proudly, telling
by the disruption of cinematic conventions invol- me in exact detail how he was going to shoot
ved in murdering the attractive young “heroine” the scene from Saul’s plans”. Another crew
less than halfway through the film. member who confirmed that Bass visualized
This was not the first time Hitchcock had brought the sequence was Psycho art director Robert
in an artist to create a special sequence within Clatworthy, and we know from Harold Adler,
a film; the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali had who worked for National Screen Services, the
created a dream sequence for Spellbound company that produced the Bass/Hitchcock
(1945), and American abstract expressionist titles, that Bass storyboards were always “very
John Ferren did the same for Vertigo. The latter complete and precise.”
work appears amateurish when compared Other evidence pointing to Bass as designer of
with Bass’s title sequence for the same film, a the shower scene includes the very substantial
comparison apparently not lost on Hitchcock. sum of $10,000 paid to him for the consultancy
According to Joseph Stefano, Hitchcock — more than Hitchcock paid for the rights
told him, “I’m going to get Saul Bass to do a to the novel. Hitchcock’s financial advisers
storyboard for the shower scene so we know argued against paying Bass so much because
 Hitchcock was using his own money to produ- tition. As Bass put it, “She’s taking a shower,
ce the film (the budget for which was just over taking a shower, taking a shower. She’s hit-
$800,000), but Hitchcock vetoed all sugge- hit-hit-hit. She slides, slides, slides.
stions that Bass’s fee be lowered. Bass’s fee as In other words, the movement was very nar-
a visual consultant equaled that of supporting row and the amount of activity to get you there
actor Vera Miles, and his weekly rate of pay was very intense. That was what I brought to
was three times that of the film editor (Tomasini). Hitchcock. By modern standards, we don’t
The total paid to Bass for all aspects of his work think that represents staccato cutting because
62 on the film came to nearly $17,000, just short we’ve gotten so accustomed to flashcuts. As 63
of the $17,500 fee paid to Hermann for scoring a title person, it was a very natural thing to
the entire movie, and also to Stefano for the use that quick cutting, montage technique to
script.72 Furthermore, Hitchcock was a director deliver what amounted to an impressionistic,
who gave art directors and other rather than a linear, view of the murder.”
creative people considerable artistic leeway. Hitchcock felt uncertain about Bass’s bold con-
Further evidence becomes apparent as the ception, fearing audiences might not accept
The shower scene
frame by frame,
narrative unravels. such a stylized and staccato-like, symbolic, and
Psycho (1960) For Spielberg the “flat Venetian-blind credits abstracted sequence. Bass recalled, “Having
that came charging in from all sides of the designed and storyboarded the shower sequen-
screen start Psycho like a knife to the throat,” ce, I showed it to Hitch. He was uneasy about
and something of that sensation is echoed in it. It was very un-Hitchcockian in character. He
the shower sequence. Some of the images never used that kind of quick cutting; he loved
“Anybody who worked with Hitch has no doubt that he was in total control of were prompted by the script; others, including the long shot. Take the opening shot in Psycho,
everything that happened on his film. There’s no doubt he was an autocrat. the pulling down of the shower curtain, came where the camera moves over Phoenix, over
But, as far as I was concerned, he was a benevolent autocrat — open to new from Bass’s imagination. Bass translated the the buildings, closes in on a building, into a
ideas, generous with his praise, always helpful and supportive. And, what script into powerful visuals, designing a highly window and into a room where Janet Leigh
really impressed me, a wonderful teacher.” stylized murder, fast cut after fast cut in simula- and John Gavin are making love. That sort of
tion of the frenzy of the act itself — an act the camera move was his signature. My proposal
- Saul Bass, “Sidebar,” Bass Archive audience does not see. Skilled at the visuali- was from a very different point of view.”
zation of ambiguity and metaphor, Bass used That Hitchcock was not completely convinced
montage, tight framing, and fast cutting to about the concept worried Bass. “His misgi-
render a violent, bloody murder as a ritualized, vings made me a bit nervous too,” he recalled,
impressionistic, near bloodless one. “so I borrowed a camera (a little Eymo wind-up
The dramatic intensity was reinforced by repe- with a twenty-five foot magazine) and kept
 Janet Leigh’s stand-in on the set after the day’s swirling down the drain. I was surprised at my
shooting. I put a key light on her and knocked response. I was in awe of Hitch. How could
off about fifty to a hundred feet of film. Then I he be wrong? I told myself it did indeed make
then sat down with George Tomasini and we the sequence more effective.” He paused for
put it together following my storyboards, not a long time, deep in thought, before adding,
worrying too much about finesse — just wan- “Sometimes there’s a little voice inside me
ting to see what the effects of these short cuts that says it was better without them.” In terms
would be. We showed it to Hitch. He liked it.” of design, that was probably the case; within
64 “It was an amazing moment. On In the end, Hitchcock gave it his approval but the film, however, Hitchcock’s decision to add 65
Hitch’s set, no one would issue orders wanted two additions: a spray of blood on the more blood and overt violence undoubtedly
other than Hitch. So I swallowed hard, chest of Marion Crane/Janet Leigh as she raised the sensational tone of the sequence
gulped and said ‘Roll camera!...Action!’ slides down the tiles, and a close-up of her belly and helped ensure its infamy.
He sat back in the chair, encouraging getting stabbed. When Philip Skerry interviewed As filmed, the scene closely follows the story-
me, benignly nodding his head Hilton Green, Hitchcock’s assistant director, he board, and all of Bass’s images were probably
periodically, and giving me the ‘Roll’ pressed him hard about the latter shot, insisting shot. In the final edit, Hitchcock left out some
signal as I matched each shot to that the knife penetrated the skin. Green was images and moved others around, but the
adamant that no such thing was shot, stating, resemblance between the original design and
the storyboard.”
“We never did a thing like that. And that was the finished sequence is quite remarkable,
before the computer things where you could do especially for Hitchcock, who greatly relied on
things like that”; when pressed further he said, creative editing. Visual clues are the overall
“We never shot it. According to Bass, the effect modernist design sensibility of the piece as well
of a knife stabbing the belly was achieved by as more specific imagery, such as the transition
pulling the knife away from her skin, reversing from the drain in the bathtub to Leigh’s eye,
the shot, and cutting away just as it touched the which recalls the unsettling eye in Bass’s Verti-
skin. Such knowledge suggests that Bass was go title sequence and the huge eye in Bonjour
closely involved with the filming of the shots. Tristesse, while Leigh’s desperate outstretched
When I asked Bass how he felt about the addi- hands recall those of concentration camp inma-
tions, he stated that, despite his huge respect tes in the opening of The Victors. The circular
for Hitchcock, “deep down I was not really hap- form of the shower head and drain are seen in
py”: “It impinged on the purity of the concept, several Bass titles, including Attack!, The Vic-
a ‘bloodless’ murder with no knife contact. My tors, and Grand Prix, while the Walk on the Wild
idea was to hold back the horror of showing Side sequence is a good example of the power
blood until the very end when it would be seen of the close-up in a short, tight sequence.
66
“SYMBOLIZE AND 67

SUMMARIZE”

Silvia Frattallone
THE LOGO BOSS
 Bill Haig

THE SAUL BASS-APPROVED

METHOD OF CREDIBILITY-
BASED LOGO DESIGN

68 69
tionery, business cards, advertising, and so After discussing several themes, nothing
on. Today we would call this recording “all seemed to work and frustration set in. I
visual touch points” for a client. from the had an idea and I wanted to please my
customer perspective. We came back with boss. Suggesting it to the great Saul Bass,
a photographic inventory of 1,500 slides however, was like speaking before the “great
showing a dated and confused Continental Oz.” I mustered my courage and suggested
visual appearance. What we found was a to Saul that since Continental is already
definite conflict with Continental’s reputation known for their friendly, high service, and
for friendly, high service, and efficiency. The efficient image, why not extend this “reality”
In 1964, Saul Bass hired me as a strategic and Braniff had just launched the airline logo
Continental visual look said the opposite. image and communicate Continental in all
logo design planner, account manager, and and plane markings boomed. Now, this was
Plus, Continental had no overall distinct areas visually just like Continental conducts
director of new business contacts. I was a new logo and plane markings design image
character and looked rather like most other itself in real life? Let’s make the logo
young, just a few years out of UCLA, and program for a feisty small airline, Continental,
airlines at the time. I remember Saul started communicate Continental as a friendly, high-
I was attracted to Saul’s rational approach and we had to give them a dynamic solution.
our planning meeting by saying something quality service, and efficient airline. In short,
to great logo design in the ‘60s. Saul was Saul insisted again on logo design planning
like, “If this were a ‘Western-oriented’ airline here’s the strategy: Let’s begin with the logo
captivating as he described his reasoning, as a means to achieving his high caliber
we would just give Continental a ‘Western’ communicating Continental as an “airline,”
why his great designs worked: thoughtful successful logos. Previous to this planning
looking logo complete with an ‘out-West its basic business. Then add to the “airline”
planning first, design next. Then it all came meeting, an associate and I observed and
look’ reminiscent of cowboy gear.” Corny logo symbology design motifs expressing
together which I call credibility-based logo photographed how Continental looked
and definitely not Continental. This was a “friendly,” “high service,” and “efficient”
design. This new philosophy and resulting in reality. The first objective was to show
different airline uniquely known for its high in terms of “high tech” and “state-of-the-
process happened one night in Saul’s office. Continental management what the public
service image and new ideas from a maverick art,” which are the elements Continentals
In late 1967, Saul asked me to see him after saw at ticket counters, city ticket offices,
president, Bob Six. Mr. Six would be open for image in reality. We’d be taking the known
work for a very important meeting. He wanted inside their aircraft, outside their aircraft,
a unique solution to make the airline stand image into visual non-verbal expressions.
to discuss logo design strategies for a new baggage handling operations, ticket jackets
out as the smallest compared to United, This hit Saul like a revelation. Together,
client, Continental Airlines. Eastern Airlines (remember those?), uniforms, signage, sta-
TWA, Pan Am—the big names at the time. we reframed the dated logo design
70 and environmental graphics so vivid in which later became the subject of my best- 71
our photographic inventory with the new selling book, The Power of Logos: How to Continental plane
1713,
logo together with simple, contemporary Create Effective Company Logos. I later https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Continental_
environmental design themes. The plane verified the process in my 2006 Ph.D. Airlines_Flight_1713
markings would be horizontal stripping on dissertation, and today I teach logo design
a long white fuselage of gold, orange, and and branding at HOW Design U. While Saul
red beginning with the famous gold tail was pleased with my book, he sadly didn’t
with a red logo. The ticket counters would live to see my Ph.D. dissertation, which was
look super efficient—a place for great dedicated to him. He didn’t know the impact
service in a friendly manner. The city ticket on the logo design planning and creative
offices and boarding areas would have process would have starting in his office in
interesting photos and artifacts from around 1967.
Continental’s routes. The new design image But what is credibility-based logo design
taken in all areas of customer contact would and how can designers use it to create logos
be a natural extension of Continental’s that work? First of all, consider looking at a
reputation for friendly, high-service, and company logo as communication persuasion,
efficient. What Saul and I were doing was rather than artwork per se. It all goes back to
describing Continental’s credibility traits in Communication 101. There are four elements
communication persuasion, although we in any communication process: it all goes
didn’t call it that. But it would do something else back to Communication 101. There are four
from our perspective as graphic designers. elements in any communication process:
Several years later in graduate school, I 1. The source or sender of the message. In
discovered the connection between source our case the source is the company. The
credibility in communication persuasion and credible source is important to judging the
its application to logo design. I termed the message that’s next in the linear model.
process: credibility-based logo design, 2. The message. In our case, unique selling
 “THE STEPS, THE LOGIC OF WHAT HE IS DOING, THE advertisment poster,,
https://it.pinterest.com/
pin/449023025328096090/

PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. THERE’S AN ELEGANCE

TO HIS ARTISTRY, BUT ALSO A SEMPLICITY AND A
MODESTY”

72 73
points for the purpose of inducing a the best curry or the latest Pacific fusion The next step is to give the “shoe” symbol a
purchase. That’s the job of the copywriter, cookbook to buy. You wouldn’t necessarily design character in a way that characterizes
however. go to the computer wiz for food-related Joe’s Shoe Repair and how he operates.
3. The channel. In Continental’s case, plane purchase advice, and you wouldn’t go to the This non-verbally communicates the
markings as an example, but normally TV, chef for computer-related purchase advice. business character in a trustworthy design
newspaper, phone, website—and medium In short, a person high in the dimensions motif. There are an infinite variety ways
that carries the message. of expertise and trust will be more credible, Joe’s trust can be communicated, but
4. The receiver.  These are important and, therefore, more influential. In logo the trust chosen must represent how Joe
stakeholders such as customers, employees, design, a credible logo is two to four times operates in reality. Joe is very friendly and
banks, suppliers, etc. more influential than a non-credible logo. professional. Joe could show that he has
If the company is the source, how does the Read: more sales. This happened with the modern shoe repair equipment and a high-
company influence the receiver as a customer? Continental logo program big time in the end environment, which would require a
Many studies in interpersonal communication late ‘60s and ‘70s. Credibility-based logo contemporary and classy “shoe” design
over the past 40 years conclude that a source design projects the company as being an treatment. But this is not Joe. In reality
that’s credible will be more influential than expert in their business and communicates Joe does shoe repair the old, hand crafted
a non-credible source. This is called source trustworthiness. way, which would be a dated or retro
credibility in communication persuasion. So, A company must be believable at being able period design with friendly overtones. The
let’s revise our model above: Credible source to do the work for which it claims to be an objective is to make Joe look trustworthy
> message > channel > receiver expert. How does a graphic designer create with traits that define the most descriptive
For example, a computer wiz would be more a credibility-based logo? Credibility-based nature of Joe’s shoe repair shop this
influential in recommending what computer logo design first requires a designer to example is “experienced,” “professional”,
software program to buy than, say, a chef. symbolize the company business. and “friendly.” A credibility based logo for
But on the other hand, a chef would be more Let’s use for example Joe’s Shoe Repair. Joe’s Shoe Repair, the “design brief” would
influential when it comes to recommending This would be a shoe repair shop with a require the logo to communicate: expertise
sign hanging on the store front with a “shoe” = “shoe repair” + trustworthy = “long time.
 This credibility trait logo description would and creating company logos. Successful
produce a logo design of a shoe with dated logos are no longer concepts that come out
and retro friendly overtones. It must be simple of nowhere. They’re planned with the client.
and have high impact as a sign on Joe’s They’re credibility-based. This process
shop. This is a credibility-based logo design. redefines the objectives for a “design brief”
This approach also demonstrates that if a which now describes the logo design
logo design can be described verbally after objectives in terms of the client company’s
it is designed as so many graphic designers unique credibility traits. Credibility-based
and company businesses do, it can also logo designs are proven to be successful.
be described before it is designed. The The process works today for company
Continental Airlines logo, with its famous managers and logo designers just like Saul
gold tail, turned out to be the first of many Bass and I did it with Continental Airlines
successful credibility-based logo designs over 40 years ago and develop Company
that I helped plan and develop. Company managers and logo designers now have a
managers and logo designers now have a frame of reference for planning, designing,
frame of reference for planning, designing, and creating company logos.

74 75

Continental tags,
https://www.creativereview.co.uk
 but he could stay in his frustrations so long patrician man of great intelligence and
as he felt the points under discussion were thoughtful demeanor, rose from his seat,
valid ones and that his opinions would be walked up to the design on the wall, and
considered. He was willing to concede studied it closely. He took a fountain pen out
certain issues, but refused to accept a CEO, of his pocket and unscrewed the cap. ‘Listen,
group of executives or anyone else altering Saul,’ he said, ‘Can i draw on that?’ ‘Sure’
one. in 19751 Staton Avery, the inventor of I said. Avery crossed out the International,
Jennifer Bass the self-adhesive label, tried to do just that. leaving only Avery, and drew a circle around

CLIENT AND
Saul recalls, “I spent months on the project, the design, ‘what do you think? Does that
researching the company and visiting Avery make it better?’.
Products facilities all over the world. Finally I walked to the wall, looked at the removed

DESIGNER it came to the presentation. I went through

every alternative and finally ‘unveiled’ my
choice (an ‘A’ formed by links of a chain).
the pushpin and held the design in my hand.
‘Stan’ I said quietly ‘when i was a kid my
mother told me never to argue with the boss.
The room was silent, as everyone waited So I asked her, even if he’s wrong? And she
for the boss’s response. Stan Avary, a tall told me that when the boss was wrong, it

76 77
Saul enjoyed exceptionally good relationships functionally and aesthetically. His design did
with his clients. Although not all captains of exactly what we wanted it to do, and did it
big business shared his liber outlook, they better. Then, when i was heading Hunt Foods
appreciated his professionalism, intelligence, and wanted a corporate symbol, along with
integrity and good company, and often a redesign of our label’s fundamentals, Saul
retained his services for many years. Larry’s one again captured what we were trying to
Seasoning & Food Company, for example, convey.
was a client for forty-seven years, and AT&T Edward Block of AT&T, who described Saul
for more than twenty-eight. Harold Williams, as “the great guru of corporate identification
“struck by Saul’s ability to understand and and a delight to work with” emphasized that
capture what I wanted to convey,” utilized Saul was “not one of those who is up on a
Saul’s talents in one way or another for more pedestal. You want a letterhead and they
than thirty-five years. Williams recalled, “In want to build the Taj Mahal. Saul is very
about 1960, Hunt Foods, the company I straightforward and practical in seeking
was working for, was trying to redesign the solutions to design problems. we knew of
Wesson Oil bottle- unsuccessfully, until I met his reputation in Hollywood, but he was not
Saul. One of the people working the phones at all a ‘Hollywood guy’. He did great work
with me at a charity telethon said that he was for us without making a lot of waves. He did
an accountant for a talented designer. I told it on time and he did it right.”
him of our design problem and he suggested Saul turned down work when he was not
we all to Saul. “It was surprisingly complex convinced of a commitment to excellence
assignment. We wanted to get away from the on the part of a prospective client or when
standard tube-shaped bottle and compete his talents would benefit a product that he Stanton Avery portrait,
product put out by Crisco. knew to be harmful to living things. https://artuk.org
Saul seemed to hot all the buttons, both He was not a mild person by any means
 was really important to find a nice way to let On the left, advertisment
for Avery Dennison, https://
him know. Pause… ‘Stan, you are wrong.’ signtradesupplies.co.uk
Down, two exaples of products,
‘Everyone stayed silent until Avery spoke. https://lightbarwarehouse.co.uk
‘Well, Saul, what can I say? A long time ago
I learned that if a man goes to a doctor he
respects, and ignores his advice, he does so
at his own peril. So i think i will defer to your
judgment.’ ‘But I knew that Avery was still
dissatisfied, and I understood why. Unlike
other trademarks that had been around for
years or decades, this one had just been
exposed to the light of day. to ally Avery’s
qualms, I did what I had sometimes done in
such circumstances. I put the new icon on a
small board, together with several other well-
known marks, and asked Avery to display the
card in his office in a prominent place where
he would see it every time he went in and
out. a week later, Avery called me. He said
‘The design is beginning to grow on me.’”

78 79
 Evolution of the Bell logo, https://arstechnica.com

Matthew Lasarm
THE “PSYCHO” to the network, even if it wasn’t one
manufactured by AT&T.
And so Bass played to the wounds of his

DESIGNER WHO TRIED TO beleaguered client. The film made fun of

customers “complaining about the finest

SAVE AT&T IN THE ’60S

products made anywhere in the world.” A
woman griped that her washing machine
wouldn’t be repaired for a week; a man
lamented the quality of his car. “At ninety I
get a vibration; they just don’t make them
like they used to.”. “Many of us here today
remember when it was quite different,” the
movie nostalgically continued, displaying
scenes from the Great Depression. “The
pursuit of happiness had ground to a halt.
Survival was the goal. Just to have a job,
80 but to have a job with security. That was the 81
“Some people in our society feel regimented,” world renown for his daring designs of the prize in 1933. How long a product lasted
the AT&T company film began. “Others feel title and credit scenes for movies like Alfred was more important than how well it looked.
free. Still others see society as dehumanizing.” Hitchcock’s Psycho, Bunny Lake is Missing, Wall Street had forgotten ‘blue sky’ and was
As audiences of Ma Bell executives heard and Otto Preminger’s Man With a Golden now talking ‘blue chip.’ Down to earth. Safe.
those words in 1969, they watched a split Arm. It’s no exaggeration to say that Bass That was the place to be.” Back then, Bell
screen showing the same scene twice: a saw his revised trademark as part of a rescue looked “safe, durable, contemporary, part
crowd of pedestrians crossing a busy city mission for the telecommunications giant. of the vacuum tube age,” the film explained.
street, then breaking into calisthenics as a “What does this all add up to, this new Bell But times had changed, looks had changed.
traffic signal blinked “ONE, TWO, ONE, TWO!” look?” asked the film, produced by Bass’ “And ours? Not enough... In a fast-moving
at them. One wonders what these Bell System company. “Our present look: dull. Our new society, we look set in our ways.”
execs thought as the film continued: “We’re look: alert. Our present look: government Since 1960, 38 of the top 100 industrial
fighting a war. Making a peace. Integrating. issue. Our new look:enterprising.” Bass companies had changed their trademark
Segregating. Getting richer. Getting poorer. It’s deployed his skills as a title designer for logos, the film noted; now it was AT&T’s turn.
quite a time to be alive.” “Some people in our movies like “Psycho” to redesign AT&T’s In amusing telephone conversations with an
society feel regimented,” Saul Bass’s 1969 trademark. But a contemporary viewer with imaginary AT&T executive, Bass’ experiment
internal documentary for AT&T noted, and some knowledge of AT&T’s history could in corporate cajolery conceded that the
portrayed pedestrians doing calisthenics come away with a sense that the larger company had adjusted the Bell logo through
before a traffic signal. It was also quite a purpose of the 27 minute logo meditation the decades. But his narrator insisted that
time for monopoly AT&T—an increasingly was to prepare AT&T for a United States of these changes had been superficial; it was
competitive time. The main point of the America in which it wasn’t the only telephone time for a fundamental makeover. And
film, now released on AT&T’s video archive service. MCI was licking at the corporation’s so the new image cut the phrase “Bell
site, was to introduce AT&T’s top brass to heels with its new microwave long distance System” from the center of the trademark,
designer Saul Bass’ new Bell logo, which plans. The FCC had just released its given how difficult the words were to
world renown for his daring designs of the Carterfone decision, which forced the AT&T read. Instead the text would appear next
rolled out in 1969. By then Bass had won behemoth to allow consumers to connect to or at the bottom of an updated picture.
 Finally, the improved logo would appear in larger
designs for trucks and company apparel that Interview to Saul
included stripes. “In the contemporary world, Bass about the
creation of the Bell
stripes have a message,” the documentary logo
proclaimed. “They say ‘competitive,’ ‘competent,’
‘alert,’ ‘dedicated.’ They say the things we
the Bell System actually are.” AT&T went
along with Bass’s design revisions—up to a
point. The logo redesign applied to 135,000
Bell system cars, over 20,000 buildings,
1,250,000 phone booths, and more telephone
directories than there were people in the
United States at the time. But the company
passed on his proposed uniform makeover
for phone installation and support teams.
Unfortunately for the telco, Uncle Sam did
not agree with the film’s assertions about
competitiveness. Through the 1970s, the
Justice Department relentlessly pursued
an antitrust suit against the corporation,
which finally surrendered in 1983—AT&T
agreeing to divest itself of its regional
companies and focus on long distance and
data services. Even then, Bass was on hand
to help, designing AT&T’s post-breakup
82 logo (or “death star,” as it was subsequently 83
dubbed). “Gentlemen, Bell is alive and living
in the mainstream of today,” Bass’s movie
concluded, as an orchestral version of the
Beatles song “Magical Mystery Tour” played
in the background. The company’s new look
would say, “We will be the communications
leader of tomorrow, just as we lead today.”
It’s never a good sign when you have to
hire an advertising agency to convince the
public that you are still alive. Still, Saul Bass
deserved credit for trying.

On the right, Bass working, https://it.pinterest.com/

pin/28921622583688291/
 in the label design for the name of each right, if that’s what you want to do…’”
particular product. Saul continued to design In March 1961, after a five-month search,
all the company packaging thereafter, as well the Aluminium Company of America
as graphics for the restaurant branch of the appointed Saul as graphic consultant with
business, from exterior signs to menus and a view to revamping the company’s public
doggy bags. Whit Saul’s help, the company face. The company had already established
established itself as a market leader in the itself as an industry leader, committed to
Jennifer Bass U.S., and he acted as design consultant even immaginative development programs and

BASS’ JOBS WITH TWO

after Liptons took over the company in the adventurous advertising The new symbol
1980s. For Saul, this business relationship was unveiled in January 1963. A company’s
represented something new and important vision is only as acute as that of it’s most

OF THE GREAT-AMERICAN in his career. “It was a very telling experience

for me. Suddenly, i’m making a design that
becomes the lifeblood of a company”. At the
clear sighted executives. “Each one of those
early programs” Saul said,”came about
because of some idiosyncratic, especially

COMPANIES outset, however, Saul’s design was met with

great skepticism on the part of L.L. Frank. He
recalled, “it was only Richard who was very
imaginative force at work, some visionary
within the company. At Alcoa it was a man
named Lawrence Litchfield, who became
strong about the new identification, but he their CEO.” Litchfield, in return, saw Saul as
finally prevailed. A yard or two later though, a kindred spirit. Early conversations between
L.L. recognized that it was really working for Saul and Litchfield focused on problems with
them. His attitude was wonderful, because the existing logo - a triangle inverted above
whenever i’d present another new element another -designed only six years earlier by
he would do his little number. He’d always Harley Earl Associates, which had proved
grumble and mumble but then say, ‘well, all difficult to protect as a trademark.

84 85
Saul’s first major identity campaign was is use the letter ‘L’… and if the design is
Lawry’s Seasoning & Food Company, based unique and distinctive enough it might do
in Los Angeles. it was founded in the 1930s the trick.” Before he could make specific
by Lawrence Frank (known as L.L.), who first recommendation, I said, “go no further,
created Lawry’s Seasoned Salt in his garage Number Two is the one.” It’s a bull’s-eye
and opened the popular Lawry’s Prime Rib and a very powerful symbol. Now, you On the left, bottle of Lawry’s, https://www.walmart.com, on the
right, Lawry’s Grill logo, http://www.eok.jp
Restaurant. can’t do that to Saul unless you hit on the
His son, Richard, who became president in right button, but it seems I did. He did a lot
the late 1950s, had new ideas for expanding of work for us over the years, but the most
the product line, which had barely made a important thing from our standpoint is that he
dent in the nation’s giant food seasoning took our main product, Seasoned Salt, the
industry, and a conviction that the company one with the greatest franchise, and made
needed a new look. it’s trademark, originally it a standout product. We had a lot of fun
designed for the restaurant, consisted of together over the years. He respected me
an english gentlemen in a top hat and the and I respected him.”Saul’s view was that,
name ‘Lawry’s’ in an old-fashioned script. in a highly competitive marketing situation,
When Frank asked his in-house advertising this medium-sized company had to stand
manager for advice, the man suggested a out visually and establish itself as innovative.
designer named Saul Bass. Richard Frank The new design was the launching pad for
recalled, “He came in with a pile of drawings a profusion of new seasonings. Since the
and covered the walls of our confere ence budget did not cover designs for all of these
room. Saul provided very careful explanation new products, Saul incorporated a space
of what he had done. He went through in the label design for the name of each
everything and said, “the best thing to do is particular product. Saul incorporated a space
 The company, as a producer of raw materials,
had allowed it’s trademark to appear on it’s
costumers’ products as well as his own.
When those products proved shoddy or
poorly designed, the Aluminium Company
of America got the blame. Consequently, the
integrity of its trademark was being steadily
eroded. Saul’s task was to offset this erosion
of reputation against the equity remaining
in the logo. Saul’s recommendation was
to acknowledge the reality of the situation
by relinquishing the old mark entirely and
designing a new one for the company’s
exclusive use. He devised a new emblem
in which three diamonds combined to form
a highly stylized letter “A” that suggested
the sleek, modern precision of aluminium
itself. In order to retain continuity, he
incorporated the triangles of the original
into the new symbol. It formed the basis
of a corporate identity system, complete
with its own typeface, design manuals and
opening sequence for sponsored television
programs. But changing the trademark
turned out to be only the beginning of an
86 extensive program. Saul’s influence also 87
extended to what the company decided to
call itself. The name “Aluminium Company
of America” hardly seemed expressive of the
company’s reputation for being innovative
and light on its feet. “I suggested adopting the
name Alcoa, among other recommendations,
during a lunch with Lawrence Litchfield, At
one point he turned to me and said, “I agree
and understand the need to doit, but i’m
personally not comfortable with it.” “He
was an interesting and accomplished man,
a man who could read and speak Sanskrit,
and I took what he said seriously. I told him
vey seriously that I thought it would not be
inappropriate for his personal letterhead
to carry the name Aluminum Company of
America. And he said with equal seriousness,
‘thank you very much’. “As one might guess,
Litchfield soon developed a strong attachment
to his company’s new name and his stationary
followed suit. The moral of the story: corporate
Up, Alcoa’s old logo, http://brandingsource.blogspot.it
identity can carry deep meaning for those under, Alcoa’s new logo designed by Bass http://brandingsource.
within a corporation. blogspot.it
 “SOMETIMES
WHEN AN IDEA
FLASHES, YOU
DISTRUST IT
BECAUSE IT

BASS
88 89

SEEMS TOO EASY.

BUT OFTEN, THIS
TURNS OUT TO BE FUTURE
TO
THE
THE BEST IDEA OF
ALL”

Giulia Ravasi
 oleo saccharum (essentially a syrup), along was a pleasant surprise. I asked Hunton if
with shaken egg white, which is then served his competition cocktails are different from
in an egg cup on a breakfast tray. As Hunton what he’ll serve at Tiger Mama: “Compe-
puts it, “It’s the reimagining of the classic tition cocktails in general don’t make sen-
serving of toast, marmalade, butter, and then se. Do I think this is my best cocktail? No.
a soft boiled egg, with a cup of tea.” I’ll take But I think it’s the one I worked hardest at. I
Tony Sachs a cocktail this good over a soft boiled egg
any morning. On the nose, it has an almond/
think it’s the one I put more of me into than
any other cocktail I’ve done. And I think

SAUL BASS IN A
marzipan sweetness, while on the palate the without the full presentation, having other
botanicals of the gin mix with the tart grape- people make it, it doesn’t mean as much.
fruit and slightly bitter tea notes to create a And that’s what MIB is about - making

GLASS drink that, unlike most competition cocktails,

actually holds up well from first sip to last.
the most creative, most original cocktail.”

Why did he get into competitions in the first

The tea part of Breakfast In Bombay isn’t place? “There’s very few professions on this
quite what you’d expect. Hunton says, “In planet that you can show up and beat peo-
this teapot, I put a large scoop of dry ice, and ple at the job you do, right? And as a barten-
A Legendary Graphic Artist Gets then I oversteeped Earl Grey tea, and then I
put 6 or 7 drops of bergamot essential oil
der, it forces you to really raise your game
up.” Something tells me that had he come
Interpreted In Cocktail Form into the tea, boil it up, and then pour it over along a little earlier, before cocktail compe-
the dry ice. The hotter the liquid is, when it titions became all the rage, Schuyler would
touches the dry ice, the more fog it creates. have channeled his competitive fire into so-
So it’s like a super-scented Earl Grey tea fog. mething far less appealing and positive for
Then you cap it really quickly,and each judge mankind. Ultimate frisbee, perhaps. May-
gets poured a cup of Earl Grey tea fog. With be investment banking. Whatever. I’m just
90 water that hot, it lasts about a minute or two. glad he’s found his calling behind the stick.
91
I had a dream. A rather ridiculous dream, but re from the opening credits to Mad Men to
whatever. I wanted a movie poster interpreted record covers to sequences in cartoons.
“So when I was in London [for the Most Ima- With Breakfast In Bombay, Hunton had
as a cocktail. And not just any movie poster,
ginative Bartender global finals], I was like, showed me his razzle. And now he showed
mind you — a Saul Bass movie poster. You As far as I know, however, Bass had never
how far away is the room that the judges are me his dazzle. He whipped out a knife,
may not know the name, but you know his been immortalized in a cocktail. So I made
in? It’s like 100 yards away. And I told them wrapped a napkin around most of the bla-
work, whether it’s the opening title sequen- the request of the bartender who I figured
the issue, and they were like, no, we can get de, and began to delicately filet a slice of
ces to classic films like Psycho, Goodfellas had the best shot at pulling it off, Schuyler
it from here to there in 30 seconds. I was like, orange peel, holding the knife like he’d hold
or West Side Story; or the corporate logos of Hunton of Tiger Mama in Boston. Schuy-
that’s perfect. They were standing there, and a pencil. “I brought you a cocktail I knew
AT&T or Kleenex, to name just two — many ler also happens to be the winner of Bom-
I scooped up the dry ice and I was like, are was going to work,” he said, because it’s
of which are still used today, twenty years bay Sapphire’s “Most Imaginative Bar-
you ready? I poured it in, capped it, and said, already on the menu at Tiger Mama. I was
after his death. He’s one of the great graphic tender” competition. He was due in New
‘Go!!’ It was really funny and really amazing.” hoping for an all-new exclusive drink, but
designers of the 20th century, if not the gre- York to talk about his winning cocktail,
my disappointment was mitigated by the
atest, with all due respect to Milton Glaser. so I made my request and attached a link
I’m not normally a fan of competition fact that he’d had the glasses made espe-
to a bunch of Bass’ movie posters along
cocktails, which I find to be generally over- cially for this cocktail by his friend, glas-
But in it’s Bass’ movie posters with which with it. I gave Schuyler no guidelines; I di-
ly complex, so the Breakfast In Bombay sblower extraordinaire Emery Wenger.
I’m really obsessed. He designed film po- dn’t even tell him which poster to interpret.
sters from the mid-‘50s until shortly be- I figured, hey, you’re the imaginative one.
fore his death in 1996. His style was, and You don’t need me telling you what to do.
is, instantly recognizable. The bold colors,
the silhouetted paper cut-out style whi- Schuyler led off the proceedings with the
ch reminds me of Matisse’s collages, the cocktail that nabbed him the Most Imagina-
distinctive hand lettering, are all as arre- tive Bartender crown, called “Breakfast In
sting today as they were when he designed Bombay.” In addition to Bombay Sapphire,
them. Bass’ influence is still felt, everywhe- it’s got a grapefruit/Earl Grey tea compound
 2 oz. Bombay Sapphire Gin
½ oz. cranberry syrup*
½ oz. Alessio Terino vermouth
1 dash Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel
Aged Bitters
Rinse cocktail or coupe glass with
Laugavulin or other smokey Scotch.
Stir with ice, strain into whisky-rin-
sed glass.
Garnish with an orange swatch and/
or lemon swatch, preferably in the
shape of the character in the Vertigo
poster.

Cranberry syrup:
4 oz. frozen cranberries
4 oz. white sugar
5 oz. water
Bring to a boil and let simmer for
Saul Bass’ poster for Alfred 5-10 minutes until cranberries start
Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo.
to pop.
92 The gin, which makes up the lion’s sha- 93
re of the drink, is complemented by cran-
berry syrup and vermouth, which Hunton
considers “a fall riff on the Martinez” (in its
slightly adulterated form at Tiger Mama,
it’s called the Autumaniac). It’s delicious
— a big, bold flavor with undercurrents of
smoke and bitterness, which applies to
not only Bass’ posters but to many of the
films on which he worked, from The Man
With The Golden Arm to Advise & Consent.

I mean, wow, right?

My favorite way to sip Saul Bass In A

Glass is while reading about the man and
his genius, in articles like this one or this
one. And since his cinematic title desi-
gns were of a piece with his posters, it’s
fun to check this out while tippling, too.

Here’s the recipe so you don’t have to go to

Boston to get it (although when in town, you
should look Schuyler up at Tiger Mama. Tell
him Saul sent you).
 which producers have implemented diffe-
rent measures of normalisation or standar-
disation against, for instance, the disorien-
ting absence of opening credits in Orson
Welles’ movies (as in the well-known case
of Touch of Evil [1958]), or conversely the
Valentina Re disorienting and eccentric form of credits
in most of Jean-Luc Godard’s films (which

FROM SAUL BASS

are almost always normalised in the Ita-
lianeditions). Moreover, we can give an ac-
count of the importance that exhibitors give

TO PARTICIPATORY to titles recalling an anecdote from Saul

Bass, the pioneer of contemporary opening

CULTURE
credits. With respect to the credit sequen-
ce he created for The Man with the Golden
Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), Bass recalls:

Opening title sequences in “When Otto learned that his The Man with
the Golden Arm was opening over closed
contemporary television drapes he made sure that there was a note
attached to every print instructing the
projectionist not to run the first reel until
the curtains had been drawn back.”

Film studies has long neglected the history,

94 modes of production, stylistic features, and 95
Introductory remarks: How main as a popular scene in Woody Allen’s An-
semantic/pragmatic role of opening cre-
titles work nie Hall (1977). The humour of the sequen-
dits. Aside from a few foundational con-
ce and the kind of tenderness we can feel
tributions written between the 1970s and
A cab moves into the frame and stops by the towards the insane behaviour of Alvy con-
1990s, which focus either on the theoreti-
curb. A man approaches it and opens the sists in the ‘natural’ empathy with Annie’s
cal implication of credits or on Saul Bass’
door. ‘Jesus, what’d you do, come by way of point of view: ‘Two minutes, Alvy. […] We’ll
work, the majority of any extensive studies
the Panama Canal?’ ‘Alright, alright, I’m in a only miss the titles.’ Annie’s quite justifiable
of the topic were published in the last two
bad mood, okay?’, answers a woman getting protests clearly signal how title sequences
decades and try to offer a historical and/or
out of the cab. They move over to the ticket can be considered as a remarkable exam-
booth of a movie theatre as they continue to ple of ‘marginality’ in the context of the
talk. A billboard reads: ‘Ingmar Bergman’s short format; literally placed at the fringes
“Face to Face”, Liv Ullmann’. ‘H’m, has the of films, title sequences have been long
picture started yet?’, the man asks the ticket considered as peripheral and insignificant.
clerk, who replies, ‘It started two minutes ago.’
‘That’s it! Forget it! I-I can’t go in.’ ‘Two minu- First, this impression of marginality can be
tes, Alvy’, the woman says. ‘No, I’m sorry, I experienced by the audience, at home or
Alvy’, the woman says. ‘No, I’m sorry, I at the theatre. Since titles are not yet or
can’t do it. We-we’ve blown it already. I-you not exactly the movie, spectators generally
know, uh, I-I can’t go in in the middle.’ ‘In feel free to use the ‘titles time’ (or ‘popcorn
the middle? We’ll only miss the titles. They’re time’) to make themselves comfortable,
in Swedish.’ Alvy’s solution: ‘You wanna turn off the phone, get something to eat.
get coffee for two hours or something?’ Second, this marginality is to some extent
corroborated by various players in the film
This amusing episode is easy to recognise industry. Suffice it to think of the ease with
 theoretical overview as well as more focali- cial task of managing a ‘transition’ (from
sed investigations. Moving to the context of the ‘reality’ of the viewing experience to
television production, it is apparent that tit- the imaginary world depicted in the movie
les played a fundamental role in forging the or television show) that in fact is simulta-
identities of many series in the past (let us neously a ‘transaction’. In addition to pro-
think of some popular cases such as Bewi- viding information about the production
tched [ABC, 1964-1972], Mission: Impos- opening credits also offer clues about the
sible [CBS, 1966-1973], The Persuaders! fictional world, characters, genre, and
[ITV, 1971]) and continue nowadays, in an thus orient the spectator and manage
increasingly crowded market, to ‘brand’ and expectations. As Saul Bass has explained:
‘package’ television shows. Nevertheless,
contributions in the field of television studies “What a title could do was to set mood and to
appear limited to thematic articles or single prime the underlying core of the film’s story;
references in thematic books, with only one to express the story in some metaphorical
attempt to develop a broader investigation. way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning
the audience, so that when the film actually
Despite this inconsistent critical attention began, viewers would already have an emo-
opening credits, insofar as thresholds or pa- tional resonance with it. I had a strong feeling
ratextual components, accomplish the cru- that films really began on the first frame.”

96 97

Bass’ title sequence

for movie The Man with
the Golden Arm (1955).
 The last sentence in this quotation cle- design are also key to understanding his
arly demonstrates Bass’ understanding personal, innovative approach to such se-
of the paratextual value of titles – even quences; by transferring the main the main
if they are not yet the movie ‘proper’ principles of graphic design from advertising
they play a key role in setting a commu- and corporate communication to opening
nicative relationship with the audience. credits he literally initiated the ‘branding’
The ‘paratext’ has doubtlessly become a of films. From the second half of the 1950s
key concept in understanding and analy- onwards the work of Saul Bass radically
sing opening title sequences, both in film changed the way credits were conceived.
and television studies; in this respect, suf- They became a playground for completely
fice it to reference Jonathan Gray’s recent new stylistic features and acquired a strong
definition of the opening credit sequence as metatextual value (titles begin to talk about
an ‘entryway paratext’, or in other words a the film through metaphor and synecdoche,
‘formidable introduction to the characters, in an intentionally allusive nally allusive and
tone, genre, and style of the show’. Saul potentially ambiguous and potentially ambi-
Bass’ training and experience in graphic guous way) and pragmatic function (credits

Frames taken opening titles

of David Fincher’s movie
Seven.

98 99

became an essential component in building the development of digital graphic design

and negotiating the movie/viewer relation- significantly for films and television shows.
ship). The work of Bass inspired an entire
generation of artists and designers (Maurice Two years before Casino and Se7en so-
Binder, Richard Williams, Pablo Ferro, Jean mething very different but equally impor-
Fouchet, Wayne Fitzgerald, Dan Perry, etc.) tant happened: After Effects software
who, from the early 1960s, experimented was launched in 1993. As Lev Manovich
with title sequences. Bass created his last se- writes in Software Takes Command, the
quence for Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995). example of digital motion graphics is cen-
He died a year later. However, 1995 is also the tral to our understanding of the aestheti-
year in which graphic designer Kyle Cooper cs of ‘deep remixability’ that characteri-
– one of the leading figures of a new gene- ses our contemporary ‘software culture’:
ration of title designers – achieved notoriety
thanks to the opening sequence designed “Normally a remix is a combination of con-
for David Fincher’s Se7en. Cooper’s work tent from a single medium […], or from a few
inspired a new creative wave embodied by mediums […]. Software production envi-
innovative post-production houses such as ronment allows designers to remix not only
Imaginary Forces, Prologue, Digital Kitchen, the content of different media, but also their
Elastic, and many others, which impacted fundamental techniques, working methods,
and ways of representation and expression.”
 Having identified ‘selected precedents’ for ce is a short text that identifies the content
contemporary digital motion graphics in the that spectators love and, at the same time
work of pioneers such as Bass and Ferro, (thanks also to its ‘marginality’), can be ea-
Manovich then directly relates the ‘expo- sily appropriated, creatively transformed,
nential growth’ of media design and its re- and then shared by fans to exhibit their rela-
lated aesthetics of ‘deep remixability’ (the tionship with the content, to strengthen their
new creative wave I have just mentioned) relationships with other fans and moreover
‘to adoption of software for moving image show their creative ability. In this perspecti-
design – specifically, After Effects software ve Manovich’s ‘software culture’ intersects Brands, rituals … and ‘spreadability’: viewer, the opening titles give me the time to
released by Adobe in 1993’. Let us consider with Lawrence Lessig’s ‘R/W culture’ and The case of Mad Men turn off the light and prepare for my weekly,
one more point in Manovich’s reflections: Henry Jenkins’ ‘participatory culture’ and or maybe daily, ritual. In this way opening
‘spreadable media’. With respect to the role of managing a tran- credits ‘mark out’ the single product in the te-
”The next major wave of computerization sition (from the ‘real’ to the ‘fictional’ world) levision flow so that the viewer can take his/
of culture has to do with different types of Taking into account well-established resear- and a transaction (by providing suggestions her time to ‘enter’ the show. As Gray puts it,
100 101
software – social networks, social media ch on the paratextual value of main titles, the and ‘instructions’ for the fictional world) the-
services, and apps for mobile platforms. The main aim of this article is to discuss this re- re are several relevant differences betwe- “credit sequences are also powerful in
wave of social networks and social media newed, double role of titles (branding content, en the opening titles of films and television medias res paratexts. […] Opening credi-
started slowly, erupted in 2005-2006 (Flickr, branding communities) in the contemporary series. When a film spectator accesses the ts help to transport us from the previous
YouTube) and continues to move forward and media landscape. In the first section, having opening credits he/she has already deci- textual universe to a new one, or out of
expand its reach. The 1990s’ media revolution distinguished the work done by film credits ded to watch the movie, has already bou- ‘real life’ and into the life of the program.”
impacted professional creatives; the 2000s’ from that of linear television openings, I di- ght the ticket or downloaded/rented the
media revolution affected the rest of us.” scuss in particular how title sequences can movie, and he/she is already ‘predisposed’ In both cases title sequences in television
be re-evaluated in the age of video-on-de- to enter (for a few hours) a fictional world series appear more strongly related to the
In this article I do not adopt an aesthe- mand services and binge-watching and rela- of which he/she already knows many de- idea of ‘seduction’ than those of the film. The
tic point of view, therefore I will not provi- ted to the idea of ‘spreadable media’. In the tails. In this respect titles encourage their idea of seduction implies that of passing,
de detailed analyses of how contemporary second section I investigate how opening entrance, confirm expectations, and provi- moving into, entering; ‘se-duce’ etymologi-
opening title sequences may express an titles (and their ‘miniatures’, title cards) can de new clues for the forthcoming narrative. cally means to draw apart and separate from
aesthetics of ‘deep remixability’. Rather, take advantage of repeated viewings in dif- the continuum of the world – in this case to
I am interested in analysing how motion ferent ways and how spectators can further Now, let us think about traditional, linear tele- allow the viewer to enter the textual world.
graphics, particularly the opening titles of re-elaborate the dialectic between repetition vision and its programming schedule. Within The seductive component is a specific fea-
television series, played a fundamental role and variation when they rework opening tit- the flow of television images the act of reco- ture in an overall strategy that is developed
in this shift from the 1990s to the 2000s. As les. I conclude by showing how a popular gnising the name of an actor, a title, or a pie- through the liminal areas of a text, inclu-
well as branding audiovisual content, thus fan vid, Channel Hopping, provides a useful ce of music in the credits, or the discovery of ding both opening credits and beginnings.
expressing its identity and putting it in re- example of the multiple ways in which title particularly original and eye-catching visual As we have seen, this strategy is meant
lation to an audience, main titles connect sequences can work today and illustrates features, can actually transform my state from to produce a change of state in the viewer
viewers – in other words they contribute to their role in a new ‘engagement-based para- ‘potential spectator’ to ‘actual viewer’. The – the transition from a state of inertia and
creating ‘networked communities’ or ‘brand digm’ of television, to which binge-watching inattentive spectator can literally be captu- ‘passivity’ to the condition of an active
communities’ based on a shared passion appears almost ‘naturally’ related. red and converted into a loyal follower. Or, if I predisposition to fiction, which requires
for media content. The main title sequen- am already familiar with the show or a regular an emotional and cognitive engagement.
 My description of the seduction strategy videos signal the circulation of a visual iden-
developed by main titles is of course valid tity and the building of a brand community
when we refer to the linear television model. across media. Let us briefly consider the
Yet how does this strategy change in the case of Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015).
age of streaming media, video-on-demand
services, and binge-watching? Watching a “A shadowed figure enters his office, sets
television show on a video-on-demand pla- down his briefcase, and the room collap-
tform implies a preliminary choice; in other ses around him. As he tumbles through a
words, when we start watching we are alre- chasm of diamond rings, happy families,
ady ‘predisposed’ to the fiction, and in this and women in pantyhose the glossy vene-
sense title sequences foster our predispo- er of advertising gives way, revealing the
sition only by suggesting characters, settin- rough humanity of a man lost. RJD2’s ja-
gs, or themes. More importantly, when we zzy ‘A Beautiful Mine’ conducts the viewer
watch more episodes consecutively while through the parallel worlds of the philan-
binge-watching we might question the very dering, chain-smoking Madison Avenue
need to pass through a liminal, marginal boys’ club and the idyllic nuclear family.”
zone again and again since after the first epi-
sode we have already entered the fictional These words summarise the opening sequen-
world. So why enter it again? More signifi- ce of Mad Men (Imaginary Forces, 2007), at
cantly, how can the traditional ‘introductory the beginning of a discussion with producer
function’ of opening titles be reframed? Cara McKenney and creative directors Steve
Fuller and Mark Gardner that is published on
I would like to suggest that instead two other the website Art of the Title. On a superficial
functions tend to prevail. In tune with Bass’ level the sequence suggests the general the-
ground-breaking approach to credits, the me of the show: the life of advertisers wor-
102 first is show-branding – that is, providing a king on Madison Avenue in New York City 103
Mad men logo and frame
of the opening credits of the show with a strong visual identity (of cour- in the 1960s. The theme is evoked through
movie.
se, in the broader framework of online and both the images included (skyscrapers made
offline branding strategies). In my view the out of graph paper, the recreation of period
‘branding value’ of opening titles is nowa- ads that appear genuine) and their visual sty-
days increasingly important because it also le. In this respect Steve Fuller defines the se-
inspires and interacts with transmedia pro- quence as a ‘kind of an update of Saul Bass’.
motional strategies and expansions and it On a deeper level the sequence alludes to
encourages fandom. Thus, the branding the profound ambiguity that marks the te-
value of main titles re-emerges in the high levision series. Through the shadowy figure
number of homages, parodies, and crosso- that enters his office and then falls down,
vers of opening sequences made by fans surrounded by conflicting and tempting ima-
that are available on video sharing platfor- ges (alcohol and cigarettes, women, and the
ms like YouTube. In addition to alternative bourgeois family), the sequence anticipates
interpretations to the ‘preferred readings’ the main character of the series Don Draper.
suggested by the original sequences such
 The second function that main titles pre- Marco Polo (Mill+, 2014), Narcos (Digital
serve even in the age of marathon-viewing Kitchen, 2015), or Daredevil (Elastic 2015).
is that of ‘framing’ the ritual, or in other We should also consider the direct expe-
words of conserving the pleasure and the rience of binge-watching on Netflix; when
rhythm of a serial narrative. In this respect we start watching one episode after another
watching several episodes consecutively the streaming service offers us the pos-
is not exactly the same as watching a very sibility to skip the opening credits. Netflix
long movie. Every episode has its inner seems to be competing with prestigious
structure and mood and provides its per- networks (like HBO or Showtime) by rele-
sonal contribution to the storyworld, even asing increasingly spectacular opening tit-
Frames taken from the main in the most remarkable examples of ‘com- le sequences; also, when it comes to the
title of Matthew Weiner’s tv
series Mad Men. plex TV’ where long-term narrative arcs are tension between haste to begin the viewing
developed in the most sophisticated way. experience and the pleasure of waiting for
This could nevertheless appear as a con- it, Netflix seems to privilege the former. That
troversial issue. The popular video-on-de- said, doubtless there are spectators who
mand platform Netflix commissions famous still appreciate the pleasure of waiting – in
production studios to create the sumptuous other words, those who love to be sedu-
opening title sequences which characterise ced once, twice, and ideally ad infinitum.
and brand its original productions such as This idea brings us to the next section.
The profound and challenging ambiguity of duced and ironically applied to The Simp-
Don Draper’s identity as well as the narrative sons world. Don Draper’s office is repla-
polyphony of the entire show – which portray ced by Homer’s living room, a box of do-
American culture in such a way that tensions nuts replaces the briefcase, and images
and contradictions are free to emerge rather of The Simpsons characters, places, and
than being theorised or resolved – emerge objects (including the Duff Beer) repla-
104 more powerfully at the end of the sequen- ce 1960s ads. Finally, in the title card whi- 105
ce. The long fall does not end, rather the ch closes the sequence Don Draper’s ci-
sequence concludes mysteriously with the garette is replaced with Homer’s lollipop.
man seen from behind sitting comfortably in
an armchair and smoking a cigarette. On his YouTube hosts a huge number of fan-ma-
right the title Mad Men appears in Helvetica. de parodies which clearly demonstrate the
The question then becomes: ‘Is this a dream? ‘spreadability’ of the sequence (and thus
Which part of it is actually real? Is the pose of the show’s identity) in the contemporary
at the end real, or is the helpless fall real?’ media landscape. Title sequences consti-
tute spreadable content because they are
So far I have examined the traditional work portable widely available, and easily reu-
of the opening title sequence as an en- sable. As we have just seen with regard
tryway paratext. However, evidence of to Mad Men they can also ‘yield hidden
its ability to brand the show and transmit levels upon active interpretation and appro-
its powerful visual identity can be found priation’. In the case of Mad Men fan-made
in the homage paid by the popular series parodies mock the motif of the fall in vari-
The Simpsons (Fox, 1989-; I am of cour- ed ways; in one the shadow figure crashes
se assuming that to be parodied by The on a road; elsewhere it falls into the glass
Simpsons implies an act of homage and of whisky and gets out drunk; it is also lite-
the recognition of an ‘authority’). The parody rally kicked onto the title card of Breaking
appears in the episode Treehouse of Horror Bad (AMC, 2008-2013); finally, it is saved
XIX (season 20, episode 4), which is part of by Superman. In a further example the fall
the ‘series within the series’ of Halloween is removed entirely; when the office collap-
specials. The sophisticated visual style of ses the black silhouette exclaims, shocked Frames taken from the
main titles of The Simp-
the Mad Men main title is accurately repro- and bothered, ‘Are you kidding me?’ sons parody of Mad Men.
 The Wire poster for the final
season airing on HBO.

Never the same: The opposing cases

of The Wire and Game of Thrones

The traditional pleasure connected to serial

narratives – namely the tension and dialectic
between identity and difference, between re-
petition and variation – has of course been
investigated at length. Yet what has not been
stressed enough is that however many times
we watch them television opening credits are Frame taken from
never the same. In this respect we can iden- The Wire main title
(season one).
tify two main practices. In the first case the
opening sequence does not tangibly chan-
ge throughout the season (The Wire, HBO
2002-2008) or even the entire series (Mad
Men) but the viewer’s knowledge about the
106 fictional world continues to change, and so 107
inevitably does his/her experience and in-
terpretation of the opening sequence. In the
second case the title sequence changes (to
varying extents) from one season to another
or even from one episode to the subsequent
(Game of Thrones, HBO 2011-present),
explicitly challenging the viewer to modi-
fy his/her interpretation and expectations.

The Wire title sequences are created by

assembling existing footage from the rela-
ted season. Starting from the second sea-
son and through the fifth the title sequence
also incorporates shots from the previous
ones. Thus a unique, coherent strategy is
able to produce varied results. First, it pro-
vides the entire show with clear consisten-
cy and an effective visual identity rooted in
a background of familiar images in which
something new appears. Second, than-
ks to use of footage from that specific se-
ason different opening title sequences are
able to anticipate the individual themes
that will be developed in each season –
 Or drugs. Or violence. Or even race. It is
about The City. It is about how we live as
Americans at the millennium, an urban pe-
ople compacted together, sharing a com-
mon love, awe, and fear of what we have
rendered in Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago,
New York, Los Angeles. […] It is, in its larger
themes, a television show about politics and
sociology and, at the risk of boring viewers
with the very notion, macroeconomics.”

As well as indicating what The Wire is, its

opening titles moreover suggest what The Frame of Game of Thrones
Wire is not. As David Simon claims, The main title.
Wire is not a cop show, nor a crime show.
The fact that the show we are about to
see does not perfectly correlate to a codi-
108 fied genre is implicit already in the title se- 109
quence – we see no fire fights, no action,
no emphases on the selected images. The
impression that lingers is that if we real-
ly want to enter the world of The Wire we
will need to be patient. Indeed, Simon has
frequently referred to the show as a ‘visual tch it. While the title sequence of The Wire This variability combined with the visual
novel’ with no reward for casual viewers. is constant throughout each season Game power of the sequence brings us back to
of Thrones provides an opposite example, in the question how main titles circulate and
For the purposes of my analysis what is that it potentially changes from one episo- are reworked in the contemporary media-
more important is that the title sequences in de to the next. In order to orient the specta- scape. The Game of Thrones wiki very accu-
The Wire foster the pleasure of the fragment tor through multiple storylines that involve rately documents all the ‘known variations
and repetition both a priori and a posterio- a huge number of characters and many dif- so far’, and in addition to providing a detai-
ri. At the beginning we are not able to con- ferent settings, while also remaining in tune led description of the sequence as well as
textualise the shots; we have no idea of the with the tradition of literary fantasy to pro- a ‘Locations gallery’ with images of all the
characters and the story in which they are vide maps of the narrated fiction world at places as represented in the map it scrupu-
involved. However, the fragments and the the beginning of books, the opening title se- lously reports the producer Greg Spence’s
relationships among the fragments have a quence represents an animated map which explanation of the ‘several rules about whi-
great evocative power. As we gradually en- evokes a vaguely medieval world. Through ch locations appear in each episode’s ope-
ter the world of The Wire we can begin to a bird’s eye perspective we snake over the ning sequence’. Moreover, as in the case of
recognise and contextualise the fragmen- map, gradually discovering its main centres. Mad Men, the sequence has given rise to
ts, we establish new links among them and This concept allows for introducing varia- a huge number of fan-made variations: the
they acquire further more specific meanin- tions on a recurring scheme, and based on opening sequence entirely re-made in Lego;
gs and a greater emotional value. So even the specific locations appearing in each epi- a re-interpretation in ‘Buffy style’; a ‘Game
if if the opening title sequence does not sode the visualisation of the map (and the- of Thrones shot-for-shot parody in the style
tation make it different every time we wa- refore the title sequence) can vary slightly. of Super Mario World’; and an alternative tit-
 Illustration of season five of
Game of Thrones opening
titles.

110 111
 watching television. When Dean changes
channels brief clips inspired by the opening
credits of well-known shows (such as Star-
sky & Hutch, ER, Knight Rider, Twilight Zone,
Buffy, Mission Impossible, Friends, et al.) ap-
pear one by one, separated by the ‘reverse
shot’ of Sam and Dean in the roles of specta-
tors. The clips are clearly recognisable than-
ks to their structure, editing style, graphic
treatment, and original theme songs, yet the
images themselves are composed of short
Frame taken from the Su- sequences or shots taken from Supernatu-
pernatural episode Channel
Hopping in which main
ral. As a result Sam and Dean are comically
character Dean is drinking beer relocated into many different fictional worlds
and watching tv on the couch.
which are immediately and strongly ‘made
present’ by the simple reworking of their
112 opening title sequences. 113

The fan vid Channel Hopping provides a

particularly appropriate example for con-
cluding. As we have seen, in the contem-
porary media landscape the opening title

Channel Hopping: Branding content, television shows: a hospital show called ‘Dr.
branding communities Sexy, M.D.’,of which Dean is a huge fan; a
Japanese game show; the sitcom again; a
To conclude, let us recall the eighth episo- procedural cop show that clearly mimics
de of the fifth season of Supernatural. The CSI: Miami (CBS, 2002-2012); and the po-
instalment, titled Changing Channels, my- pular show Knight Rider (NBC, 1982-1986).
steriously starts with an explicitly artificial
setting that can easily be linked to the si- One of the most interesting aspects un-
tcom style. After the opening title sequen- derlying Changing Channels is that a si-
ce which replaces the traditional title card milar ‘experiment’ had been proposed by
and mimics the main titles of sitcoms from fans more than one year before the episo-
the 1980s we return to the ordinary world de’s broadcast. In May 2008 vidder Sarah
of Supernatural. A new investigation starts, House, known in the community as Ash48,
but the brothers quickly realise that they are posted the vid Channel Hopping on YouTu-
dealing with a trickster and find themsel- be, which begins with the familiar image of
ves literally trapped in a series of different Dean sitting on the couch drinking beer and
 Supernatural opening titles,
season 8.

114 115
 Will Perkins
PSYCHO (1988)

116
Get a troubling window into the mind tches nearly every element of the original, Saul and Elaine Bass work out a
special effect, 1967.
of a killer, cracked and split, in the ope- right down to the iconic Bernard Herrmann
ning of director Gus Van Sant’s mu- score and Saul Bass-designed opening tit-
ch-derided 1998 reimagining of Psycho. le sequence. The latter, executed by Pablo
Ferro – a contemporary of Bass and title
Less of a remake and more a duplicate of the design legend in his own right – was meti-
original Alfred Hitchcock classic, Van Sant’s culously recreated under the watchful eye
Psycho is both an experiment in form and of title designer Elaine Bass, Saul’s wife
a provocation of sorts. Other filmmakers, and collaborator of more than 40 years.
such as Brian De Palma and David Fincher,
have built careers on emulating or paying Elaine retired from the business after Saul’s
homage to Hitch, but Van Sant was the first passing in 1996, but returned in 1998 to
director to so blatantly – and purposefully ensure that one of her husband’s most re-
– copy the master filmmaker note for note. vered works would be protected and pre-
When asked why he would even attempt served. Ferro, who had worked with Van
to remake Psycho, Van Sant simply replied Sant previously on films like To Die For and
“So no one else would have to.” In an era Good Will Hunting, was hired for Psycho
when remakes feel increasingly inevitable, in part because of the mutual respect that
that sort of pragmatism is almost admirable. existed between he and Bass. The two
were frequent competitors in the worlds
The cast and crew of Van Sant’s Psycho of advertising and film and both had wor-
may be completely different, but the mo- ked closely with director Stanley Kubrick.
vie remains Hitchcock’s film to its core.
Shot for shot, angle by angle, the film ma- The Psycho title sequence is an exercise
 in tension and contrast, made all the more en. When viewed against the black, the gre-
potent by Hermann’s frenzied main title the- en bars leave a crisscrossed afterimage, an
me. Simple lines charge across the screen imperceptible trail burned into one’s vision.
in parallel, delivering pieces of type, forming
credits in time to the score, and then carrying Van Sant’s Psycho was both a critical and
them away again in pieces. Bass original- commercial failure, proving to be a pale imi-
ly imagined the lines as information, clues tation of Hitchcock’s original. However, while
to the unfolding mystery thatnever quite re- the film laid bare some of the shortcomin-
veal themselves. “Put these together and gs of the horror classic, it also demonstra-
now you know something. Put another set ted the enduring power of Bernard Herr-
of clues together and you know something mann’s music and Saul Bass’s title design.
else.” Ferro’s primary contribution to the The Psycho opening title sequence remains
1998 iteration (aside from fitting in all the new as effective as when it first gripped audien-
credits) was giving the sequence its colour. ces back in September 1960. If only the
In place of the original white, the lines are fil- same could be said of the rest of the film.
led in with a particularly bright shade of gre-

Poster of movie 1998 movie

Psycho.
“If it were up to the executives,
118 they probably wouldn’t have 119

directions at all”
- Gus Van Sant
 A discussion with Title Designers What about the colour? The original film almost like a sideshow at the circus. dfor a little bit of it, but I think she knows —
Pablo Ferro and Allen Ferro was in black and white. and the majority of us who do this work and
Allen: Ultimately it was an homage to Saul appreciate this work — appreciate her input
Let’s talk a little bit about the Psycho Pablo: Since Psycho was in colour we thou- because they both had great respect for with Saul. He had an army of people working
remake you worked on in 1998. This was ght, “What colour can we do? What colour? each other… with him and it was a collaborative effort, but
with Gus Van Sant, but it was a bit of an We can’t do a horror colour!” I shot all kinds of nonetheless Saul being the creative head
unusual project, right? different colours and green worked the best. Pablo: And Elaine. She worked with me. and Elaine being with him at the time and
doing the work, she was definitely up there.
Allen: Laura Ziskin originally brought Pablo Cool! So there are other versions of the Allen: Yeah, it was really out of deep respect
in to do To Die For. Gus fell in love with his sequence that have different colours? and love for that work. It only made sense Pablo: Yeah, she started as an assistant
artistry and the way that they work together to take that direction. and she ended up doing better than Saul!
is very good. It was the director who came Pablo: Yes! She would give him great ideas. He married
to us with [Psycho]. And what was it like working with Elaine her so she wouldn’t go anywhere! [laughs]
Allen: Primary colours, red, blue, green. I don’t Bass?
Pablo: We did To Die For with him before remember any other choices considered du- Do you have a favourite title sequence
that. He hired us to do this. ring that time. It was set for exposure and Pablo: Very easy. Good people. It’s work — by Saul or Elaine Bass?
density tests — the final was picked by Pablo. you have to spend so many hours doing it
What was the first meeting like about — but it’s easy hours. It was a pleasure to Pablo: The Man with the Golden Arm. Saul
this project? Did Van Sant tell you he just Did you encounter any other issues while work with her. She’s a very pleasant person. Bass. When I saw that I couldn’t belie-
wanted to remake Saul Bass’s iconic title working on this? As we would say in the ‘60s: good vibes! ve it. He’s got a simple drawing and it’s
sequence? so powerful. I said, “Wow, that’s a beauty.”
Pablo: In the old days they held the actor’s Allen: She felt comfortable with your presen-
Pablo: Yeah! Well, he didn’t say remake credits longer on the screen. That saved us ce on the project. I think that was Gus’s in- Allen: My father drummed that into my head
— he said “Do him!” He’s going shot-for- because Gus added more actors! I had to tention. Saul’s passing was still fresh for her early on too, but I know that it’s the same for
shot, he’s imitating every shot, so I imitated put more actors in the same space. Luckily and Jennifer [Bass]. She was very comfor- him. We really admire Saul Bass and Mau-
120 enough there was just enough time to do it. table with your presence, especially in terms rice Binder. We wish they were around to-
121
everything that Saul did. I only used Saul’s
stuff, I didn’t do anything to his lines. of it being an homage. It is also contempo- day but they truly are amazing visionaries.
What I did was I took the black-and-white That’s what I mean, I didn’t touch a hair rary, in terms of Pablo’s involvement, so it
print that they had and I had a high contrast of it. I didn’t change any of his bars, I just was an interesting dynamic when you look Allen: You have to look at what you’re doing
done of it. I had it all cleaned up so all you used it, repeated it here and there, but at it with the movie being remade that way. with a project and you have to really under-
would see is the black lines going through. that’s the only change I made. We all lo- stand that there are two modes of operation
I took that, made a matte, and did exactly ved the black and white. It was just a tre- Pablo: I was just following orders! [laughs] in working on any given project creatively:
what he did. at tosee! It was already done, so this was Number one it’s that you’ve got a committee
Saul and Elaine were collaborators for or a group of people that wants something
nearly 40 years, but Elaine doesn’t get accomplished and then the other people
On the left: Group picture of the producers of the movie Psycho nearly as much credit as Saul does. Why who just have this visceral understanding
(1998). On the bottom right is Gus Van Sant.
On the right: Title designer Pablo Ferro at Title House in Los do you think that is? of what the reality is, what makes it work.
Angeles, California, 1997.

Allen: The funny thing about being some- Pablo: I’d like to tell you something about
one’s right hand or being a creative muse, Saul Bass because I had the same pro-
is that you get really close with the creative. blem he did. Hitchcock never mentioned
You get to learn what they want, you get to that Bass did the storyboards and shot all
anticipate the types of directions they want. the angles that were shot [for the Psycho
And Elaine was that — every bit as much as shower scene]. Saul shot those with
I am to my father. Elaine knew Saul better another girl first before Janet Leigh… Elai-
than anyone else did. She got credit for the ne Bass told me when we were working
work she did. She was possibly overlooke-
together, she was criticizing [Hitchcock] and Pablo: I’m glad to hear that.
telling me what he did. I said, “I had the same
problem on Midnight Cowboy, on the bedro- So what do you think Saul would have
om sequence.” I did the whole sequence. thought of this homage done by you and
Elaine?
Allen: But he’s getting the design sequen-
ce credit now. It’s in his book that Jennifer Pablo: He’d probably just laugh.
Bass put out.

123

Frame of a scene
extracted from movie
Psycho (1998) portraing
main character Norman
Bates.
FONTI
Jennifer Bass Pat Kirkham ,Saul Bass: A Life
in Film & Design, Laurence King Publishing,
London 2011

Idea Magazine, Idea Archive 01 Saul Bass &

Associates, Seibundo Shinkosha Co.,Ltd. ,
Tokyo 2001 pp 128-129

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/saul-bass-a-
life-in-pictures/

https://medium.com/art-science/saul-bass-
on-his-approach-to-designing-movie-title-
sequences-47fd537c457b

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-sachs/saul-
bass-in-a-glass-a-le_1_b_12650446.html

http://www.necsus-ejms.org/saul-bass-
participatory-culture-opening-title-sequences-
contemporary-tv-series/

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/psycho-1998/

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WUOBkv5z6Ys&t=189s
http://www.openculture.com/2013/01/saul_
bass_advice_for_designers.html

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WUOBkv5z6Ys&t=189s
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-
features/8855960/Martin-Scorsese-on-the-
talent-of-Saul-Bass.html