The Great Saul Bass (1920 - 1996)

Saul's New York Times obituary read " minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art." I found this while doing research on him for a logo. The more I dug the more I realized how much his influence effects us today.

Everyone remembers the movie poster for Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock. But did you know that he designed the title credits also. He also did it for many classics such as The Man with the Golden Arm, Exodus, West Side Story, Anatomy of a Murder, Vertigo? As wells as design some of the greatest marks in history, AT&T for example.

It was The Man with the Golden Arm which really put him on the map. When the reels of film for Otto Preminger's controversial movie, The Man with the Golden Arm, arrived at US movie theatres in 1955, a note was stuck on the cans - "Projectionists, pull curtain before titles". Until then, the lists of cast and crew members which passed for movie titles were so dull that projectionists only pulled back the curtains to reveal the screen once they'd finished. But Preminger wanted his audience to see The Man with the Golden Arm's titles as an integral part of the film. Saul recognized that the arm was a powerful image of drug addiction. So he went on a limb and chose it, rather than Frank Sinatra's face as the symbol of both the movie's titles and its promotional poster. That cut-out arm caused a sensation and Saul Bass reinvented the movie title as an art form.

For the rest of his career he would hone down this style and continue to be consistent between film and print. Each new generation of movie makers wanted to work with this cinema legend and so he went on to design the posters for James Brooks' Broadcast News and then Penny Marshall's 1988 Big. But it was with Martin Scorsese that he did most of his work towards the end. Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence and lastly the haunting images of Robert De Niro falling through the neons of the Las Vegas Strip for Casino. He died a year later, but his style lived on.

Just recently the Coen Brothers released the poster for their new movie Burn After Reading. You can see Saul's style very distinctly, the cartoonish figures, solid colors and uncomfortable fonts. It's also evident that you don't see any of the actors faces. That's because he taught us to have faith in the story to sell the movie, not star appeal!

That's why you have to love Saul Bass, he always gave you a little glimpse of the plot. He didn't bother to focus on the actors except in name only. In his mind that was shallow and he wanted you to see that this movie is more than the actors in it. I think you can see from his body of work which approach was better.

Judge A Movie By It's Cover

The Crow with Brendon Lee is my favorite movie poster. It used to be taped on the wall in my room and I'd look at it for hours and just admire the design. Looking at that poster made me feel that something cool was coming and as much as it sounds goofy it was like a portal into a different the world. The photography, layout and type treatment all just tied together so nicely. The fact that the movie was fantastic made the poster even more amazing.

I guess my interest in movie posters started when I was a kid in England where I first saw The Empire Strikes Back, Goonies, and Ghostbusters. I remember going to the "pictures" (theater) and seeing those posters up on the walls and being blown away by how eye catching they were. There was a sense of importance with the marquis lights around them and the large scale. I quickly began to see the good from that bad and noticed how it influenced my opinion of a movie. The phrase, "never judge a book by it's cover" never applied to me. If the poster sucked, the movie sucked. That belief has stuck with me ever since.

So while I was gone for a week in England a whole host of posters came out. I thought I'd write a quick review of each and compare them once the flicks actually.

Batman: When Heath Ledger died it caused an unfortunately scenario of "Do we advertise the Joker or don't we?" The marketers didn't want Warners Bros to be seen as taking advantage of his death as a way to promote the movie. So they wisely backed off for a good long while. By doing that they of course lost a ton of momentum they had been creating by teasing us all with the "Joker". It's a shame he's gone because Heath's "Joker" is freakin' electrifying, he's the star plain and simple. Back to the poster, they did a damn good job on the treatment and I love the "Ha". It's simple and brilliant. If I were 15 I'd put this on my wall!

Mutant Chronicles: I remember seeing another poster for this movie a while back which was way better than this piece of crap. It's got "B-Movie" written stamped in the middle of it. Every movie has one of these, they try to emulate the Star Wars and Indiana of their day? I guess it dots all the I's and crosses the t's so there's something for everyone. My feeling is that they are nervous about it and want to sell it as a silly but serious action flick. If I were 15 I'd throw this in the trash!

The Spirit: I previously wrote about the other Spirit movies here. This is by far my favorite one of the lot and I'm really happy they did a character poster because the movie was missing something. Scarlett Johansson looks incredibly sexy; the photography and execution are really well crafted to make a very eye catching design. It was once a comic book written and drawn by Frank Miller so I like the touch of comic book text on her face. If I were 15 I'd put this on my wall!


Sex Drive: A little tongue and cheak huh! It certainly gets your attention and its very punny. I'm not usually a fan of white backdrop posters because they immediately scream comedy. I guarantee that every Eddie Murphy family comedy from the last 15 years has a white background. If I were 25 I'd be curious about it.



Trans Siberian: I like this for many reasons? The white space, use of type, the eerie photography, an ominous train and lastly the great name. You just know by looking at this that the film is a world of layered characters and deceptions. If I were 15 I'd put this on my wall.




Blood Car: Crapola... it's fairly well executed and I guess the girl is about to flash us which good in my book? Looking at it make's me think that they should have made the Honda a VW Bus instead and the name should have been "Little Miss Sunshine Goes On A Killing Spree". If I were 15 I'd throw this in the trash.



Your Name Here: It's obviously an Independent movie staring Bill Pullman. I don't know about Bill Pullman but the poster makes the film look pretty damn good, I have to watch it! The treatment is so muli-layered with inconography, very Saul Bass. I also like the type treatment plus the name is very perplexing, what does it mean? If I were 15 I'd put this on my wall.

Stay Charged: U2s Rattle and Hum

I recently ordered and watched U2s Rattle and Hum. I thought it would provide good background noise while I had to design a new logo. Check out a short clip below.


What an amazing band. I don't know about you, but this period of U2s career is my favorite. I played them all throughout my teenage years. I was a hopeless romantic so I must of played "With or Without You" a million times, seriously… I'm just kidding, but seriously!

Back to U2. For one reason or another I had never seen the documentary so it was a great surprise to see that it was pretty decent. Actually, it was hard to tear my eyes away from it. As I began working and listening to the music I noticed that my designs were improving. I had this weird experience that I've had before where I wanted to do both and it became really inspiring!

I don't pretend to know anything about music and quite honestly, I'm out of my element here so please bear with me. I listen to everything and probably wouldn't know a bands name or where they come from. I typically have on and off days with my music collection. I'm sure it's the same for everyone. You get an album, play it way too many times and get sick of it. I've exhausted my music "work" collection so on occasion I listen to Pandora.com. But there's something about buying a cool new album that gets me all hopped up.

My point to all of this is that it's amazing how music effects our work. I've noticed that it can change depending on the style of music. Top 40 stuff is usually full of spunk while the Aimee Mann's are slow and often depressing. I'm not afraid to admit that I'll listen to Justin Timberlake to get me out of a funk if the work is crappy or if I'm super stressed. Top 40 stuff seems to make me more "productive". So I suggest to everyone, figure out what your "productive" music is, be it Britney, Justin, or Black Eyed Peas. Whatever gets you all hopped up and happy to be doing what you are doing.

Kill Bill Sprays A Little Attention

"Think outside the box". I must have heard this phrase a million times in my career. It's always used to push oneself or others to do something great and different that's never been seen before. For those of you which have had to go down this road you know how hard it is because we have a nasty habit of creating limitations on ourselves. We might say: The client won't do it; there's no money in the budget; I'm too busy; the client wants something simple! These limitations stop us from doing eye catching ideas. But there are times when everybody does their job right, the client is open and the stars align.


Above is a great example of out door that is "outside the box". It's an outdoor poster for the awesome flick KILL BILL that was placed near a busy Auckland intersection to promote a local channel's screening of the movie. As you can see, they went a step further and sprayed paint on the building, pavement, street and car. The added touch has to be the car and the empty spot where the blood wasn't able to spay on to the ground. That was a brilliant touch. As a creative solution it grabs your attention, describes the film simply and makes you want to know who did it. As you can see, the logo isn't big and it isn't placed on the left to insure that people will see it in 4 seconds. No they wanted buzz. This poster goes a step further and creates self promotion for the station and becomes a great talking piece.



I use to to work at Adams Outdoor Advertising here in Charlotte, NC. This type of approach is what we and agencies got really excited to do. While I was there, an agency in town, Boone Oakley wanted to create a stunt that involved a giant 3D muffin that had fallen on a car. The car was to be placed underneath the billboard a couple days after the billboard had been put up. The car had a for sale sign with a telephone number. Just like the KILL BILL above, it was also by an intersection and it incorporated the surroundings. It was also smart that anybody from the gas station nearby could walk up and checkout the car. So one night, the operations guys go out to the car and crushed it with a crane. They then placed the 3D muffin on top. As you can imagine the next day the phone rang like crazy.

I even heard a story where a friend of mine, Bailley, went out to see the billboard with the muffin on the car shortly after it had happened. He saw these two guys laughing their asses off at the giant muffin. So Bailley walked up to them and commented on how funny it was and then one of the guys said, "it's hilarious, my buddy here wanted to buy this car and he brought me out to take a look at it!"

In today's day and age billboards, like most advertising, have a very difficult time standing out. Now that we have a million or so TV channels to watch, and logos are plastered everywhere, it's tricky to do anything. So when I see examples like the Kill Bill, the first thought I always have is, "Why didn't I think of that" and the second is, "Damn they did a good job."