All about Saul Bass

Sep 8, 2008

Saul Bass
Image copyright Harrie Verstappen

An ode to graphic designer, Saul Bass.

Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker. Although an excellent logo designer, he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen.

During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, and the text racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

Saul Bass logo designs

AT&T Bell System
Designed in 1983

Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T “globe” logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System (previous 1969 Bell logo shown below).

Quaker
Designed in 1971

Konika Minolta
Designed in 1978 (new logotype designed in 2003 by Konika Minolta)

Further Saul Bass resources

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13 excellent comments, click here to add one

Peter Sullivan

Saul is a genius. I also love his poster designs for Otto Preminger’s films. Both ‘Bunny Lake is Missing’ and ‘Anatomy of a Murder’.

Peter Sullivan’s last blog post…Vintage 45 Earrings

Sep 8th, 2008
Gregory Moulinet

If there is a designer in the world who would go well with an entire museum dedicated to his work; Saul Bass top my list.

Sep 9th, 2008
Justin (www.DotNetMushroom.com)

What i find interesting is that most of his logos follow round geometric patterns, mainly circular. When he used lettering such as in the Kleenex logo, he still used a very round font. Then comes the Exxon logo and it truly breaks all these rules. It is truly fascinating that so many worldwide known logos that are with us today were designed by the same man - not company - man !

DotNetMushroom

Sep 9th, 2008
Roberta Seldon

I agree Peter. Saul is a genius…right up there along with Paul Rand.

Sep 9th, 2008
Peter Sullivan

Roberta: Paul Rand is also great. Love that UPS logo. I also like Milton Glaser, Abram Games, & Alan Fletcher.

Peter Sullivan’s last blog post…Unintended Messages

Sep 9th, 2008
Grafiko

I loved his movie work. His logo work is timeless. That is how good his work was

Sep 10th, 2008
Jerry Kuyper

Saul Bass was a remarkable designer, I had the privilege of working for him for two years. He employed many talented designers over the years who contributed to the creative success of the firm. Saul Bass/Herb Yager & Associate designed the Exxon service station but Raymond Loewy designed the Exxon logo.

Sep 11th, 2008
David Airey

Peter,

Those poster designs are indeed great.

Gregory,

Definitely up there in my list of all-time greats too.

Justin,

If you’ve subscribed to comments you’ll already have read that Raymond Loewy designed the Exxon logo

Jerry,

I noticed the Exxon logo looking out of place on the first ‘further resource’ link above. I hope everything’s going well with you of late.

Roberta, Grafiko,

Thanks for stopping by.

Sep 12th, 2008
Neil

You know, I’ve never known that Bass was the designer of the Minolta logo. However, you have to wonder if such a logo was designed today, surely whoever designed it would be accused of imitating the AT&T logo.

Yes, I realise that Bass designed that too (and after the Minolta logo), but again, in today’s world, I believe he’d probably come under a lot of scrutiny for designing two quite similar logos. Just a thought.

Sep 13th, 2008
Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Bass has always been one of my favorite designers. His movie titles were brilliant!

Jeff Fisher LogoMotives’s last blog post…Education Logos

Sep 17th, 2008
John G

He’s still a huge influence… just check the poster for the new Coen Bros. film ‘Burn After Reading’

Sep 23rd, 2008