A look at the work of designer Saul Bass. From his well-known logo designs to his wonderfully designed title sequences for movies; as well as several pieces of work he has inspired by others.

Designer Saul Bass

For those of you who are unfamiliar with designer Saul Bass (and shame on you!), let me start by introducing you to some of his most famous movie posters and logo designs:

And some of his famous title sequences…
Vertigo:

Anatomy of A Murder:

Ocean’s 11:

Bunny Lake IS Missing:

The site Not Coming To A Theater Near You has a wonderful feature on all of Saul Bass’ title design sequences.

Saul Bass has always been heralded as an amazing designer. He worked with directors like Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock repeatedly and was and is highly regarded as one of the best graphic designers of all time.

Now, some very clever and creative folks, such as Jose Luis Forteza Vila, have been making their own versions of Saul Bass’ famous graphic title designs and sharing them on you tube.

You Tuber Brooksy362436 (Daniel, age 33, UK) made his own version of Star Wars titles a la Saul Bass:

And here are some other wonderful YouTube homages to Saul Bass’ style:

Titanic Vs. Saul Bass by Declan O’Mara of Red Box Films:

Dark Knight Vs. Saul Bass by David Nguyen:

Saul Bass vs. The Dark Knight from David Nguyen on Vimeo.

Jurassic Park Title Saul Bass Style by Emma R Courtney:

Taxi Driver Titles (Saul Bass style) by Simone Brancatello:

Toy Story VS Saul Bass by Matthew Thomas Melling:

So, now that I got the Saul Bass bug, I did a little more surfing and found some fun posts and items. The blog, Focus Pull, has a great post on 10 contemporary movie posters that were inspired by Saul Bass. See them here.

above: Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead movie poster clearly influenced by Saul Bass’ movie posters for Anatomy Of A Murder and Man With The Golden Arm

There are many wonderful contemporary illustrators who have been inspired by Saul Bass.
Two of my favorites are:
Olly Moss
Hexagonall

Feeling inspired? Try creating some Saul bass work of your own, especially now that you can download the “Hitchcock” font in Mac postscript or Windows designed by Matt Terich and available from Typographica here.

Learn more and see more about Saul Bass:
• Saul Bass tv 
• Saul Bass on Wikipedia
• Saul Bass bio at Design Museum
•Saul Bass Logos and trademarks Saul Bass on the web