Heroes & Heroines
Saul Bass
1920-1996 Saul Bass was born May 8, 1920 in New York City and became one of the most creative and controversial graphic designers in the industry.In 1946, Saul moved to Los Angeles where he started a graphics design company focusing on advertising films, trailers, posters and logos. Saul's first big break came on an advertising job for the film The Blue Moon. Otto Preminger was pleased with his work and gave Saul a contract for the film Carmen Jones in 1954 but it was his design concept for Man With the Golden Arm in 1955 that made him well known. He created posters and logos for all of Preminger's films and worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock on many of his most famous films. Saul is even credited for laying out the famous shower scene in Psycho. Some of his other major credits would be designing sequences in West Side Story, Walk on the Wild Side and the racing sequences for Grand Prix.In the mid 1960's Bass grew tired of laying out sequences for other directors and started making his own short subject films. He won an Oscar for his 1968 film Why Man Creates and was nominated for several Academy Awards.In the late 1970's he returned to graphic design where he created logos for products and corporations including United Airlines, AT&T, Lawry's seasonings, etc.In the 1980's Saul returned to designs for several films like Goodfellas and Cape Fear.Saul Bass died in 1996 at the age of 76 having worked with and influenced many of Hollywood's most famous directors.
