Saul Bass

Saul Bass was born on May 8th, 1920, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from James Monroe High School, he bagan studying part-time at the Art Students League in Manhattan until attending night classes at Brooklyn College. He began his time in Hollywood during the 1940's, he made his breakthrough when Otto Preminger asked him to design the poster for his film Carmen Jones in 1954, Preminger was so impressed with his work, he asked him to create the title sequence for it too. Bass took this as an opportunity to change the way title sequences were used and how much of an impact they would have on the audience.


Bass would often use a single image to symbolise the movie. He used this because it became instantly recognisable and was immediately tied to the film, it showed the audience the main focus of the film in a single image.  After this he created the title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, he created this using an extreme close-up of a woman's face and then her eye before making it spin in to a spiral and then filling the screen with what looked like blood. His title sequences were so simple, yet so effective. Along with Preminger and Hitchcock, he worked with many other famous filmmakers such as Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, who helped him during his 40 years of success.