Saul Bass: Style is Substance

15 minutes well-spent watching a couple of commentaries about the title sequences of Saul Bass.

The Man with the Golden Arm, Saul Bass

“Despite the fact that true title sequences aren’t really something that most movies carry today, the ones that do feature them are almost always in debt to Bass’ style and philosophy.”

“What you’re seeing is actually a short version of the film you’re about to watch, almost always broken down to one or two simple visualised ideas.”

I had to smile, again, at how good the man was at his job.

The first commentary (above) is narrated Andrew Saladino of The Royal Ocean Film Society. Via swissmiss.

The second, The Look of Saul Bass (below), has commentary from title designer Kyle Cooper and introduced me to a few great title sequences I hadn’t seen.


Comments

2 responses to “Saul Bass: Style is Substance”

  1. Thanks for posting this David. We are huge fans of Saul Bass. The Design Museum had a great exhibition about him many years ago at the old site (the new design museum is awful).

    Maurice Binder and one of my design hero’s, Robert Brownjohn did some great work on film titles too.

    This leads to another question, who and what influences you? Perhaps another post for another day David?

    1. There’s a decent collection of Maurice Binder’s work on Art of the Title, too.

      Influences, a good one for another day, Lee. I’ll send you an email.

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