above: Designer Saul Bass (1920-1996) and some of his famous work
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 title sequences:
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 have been making their own versions of Saul Bass' famous graphics and sharing them on youtube.
"If Star Wars was filmed two decades earlier and Saul Bass did the opening title sequence, it "might" look like this...
This was part of a school project. The song is "Machine" by the Buddy Rich Band off the album Big Swing Face (1967). Note: I'm aware of the errors in the video (spelling, Max Rebo), but I chose to leave them because the video is still enjoyable. This was just for fun and NOT a serious artistic endeavor! Oh, and you MUST watch the video response by brooksy362436. Brilliant!"
--YouTuber Bhilmers, age 36, USA
So, of course, I then had to see the video response by You Tuber Brooksy362436 (Daniel, age 33, UK): "The original video is utterly fantastic, but since it has been made there have been huge technical advancements. Now the video can be remade exactly how the author intended it all those weeks ago. "
And here are some other wonderful youtube homages to Saul Bass' style:
Titanic Vs. Saul Bass
Dark Knight Vs. Saul Bass:
Jurassic Park Title Saul Bass Style:
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 illustratos 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