Saul Bass

 

1920-1996 

"Saul Bass wasn’t just an artist who contributed to the first several minutes of some of the greatest movies in history; in my opinion his body of work qualifies him as one of the best film makers of this, or any other time" 

 — Steven Spielberg, 1996

A 20th Century American graphic designer, Saul Bass is really a legendary Character in design of the century especially his work with film, print and logo creation. Back in 1955 when the film "The Man with the Golden Arm" was released Saul made sure that before the movie was shown the projectionists were given the task to show the film's titles, as back then it wasn't the norm. Saul finally opened his own studio in 1950 but continued to work for big names in the film industry such as: Otto Preminger, Alfred Hichcock and Stanley Kubrick. As a designer, Saul Bass has a unique and genuine style which was a big stepping stone to visual communication in the 20th century. 

What really impressed me about Saul is his corporate logo design which was commissioned by such companies such as ATnT and Kleenex. Some particular logos created by Saul has been shown to be kept by the company for a very long time, the average lifespan of one being an incredible thirty four years. His designs caused controversy and speculation  as they were a completely new style to the competition.  

Saul's poster designs started off in Hollywood and as you can see they all have a very unique style. The basic use of color allows important information to be communicated in a better way. His use of space and overall design allows for key features such as who is actually starring in the film to be recognized by the audience easier, which back then wasn't really noticed by the general public. My favorite poster has to be Bass's Steven Spielberg's Back To The Future poster. I personally like this more then the rest of his artwork because of his use of color and perception to draw the audience into the center of the image but still achieving to the audience to notice the title first.  

Bunny Lake is missing (1965) has an interesting title sequence, designed by Bass where paper is ripped in multiple directions to reveal names. The clip can be found here. Powerful enough, the hand movements that rip the paper show that there is something hiding behind the top layer, reinforcing the plot of the film. 

Sagmister and Walsh [1962- Present]

“It is very important to embrace failure and to do a lot of stuff — as much stuff as possible — with as little fear as possible. It’s much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to over-think in the beginning and not do it"

Residing in New York with a successful graphic design and print firm, Sagmister works collectively with Jessica Walsh, a designer and art director who has won several awards, including a distinction of Computer art's "Top Rising star in designer". Sagmister started graphic design at the age of fifteen and later received a Fulbright Scholarship at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1993 Stephan Formed Sagmister .inc and has continued his ideas on branding and Identity; as this been reflected in many commissioned pieces to clients clients such as Jay/Z, The Rolling Stones (Universal Music Group), Levi's Jeans and non profit organisations such as The Azuero Earth Project.

What startled me when looking into Sagmister was that on their firm's website it shows a live shot from the top of their studio which updates every few seconds which I thought was quite nifty and also a good way to show to the public eye that creativity is constantly flourishing in the studio. Is this a good way to gain more client incite? Their interactive website links to pages that are actually written on the floor of the studio to be clicked upon online, could we say that this illustrates and strengthens the image the job a graphic designer has to do- work in unison with their client ? And make the client feel they have a strong involvement within the basis of what they want to achieve.

  One of the most interesting pieces by Sagmister and Walsh is their "Seven deadly sins and seven deadly virtues" set of drinking glasses which incorporates aspects of  illustration and product design. Based on a vision by Adolf Loos back in early 1931, Sagmister has adapted Loos's glasses into a concept that depicts the seven deadly sins and seven deadly virtues of life all illustrated at the bottom of each glass. Personally, as the adults being the target audience this could maybe even lead to a heated debate about ethics at the dinner table as the pictures reveal themselves at the bottom of the drink?  Each individual glass costs a pricey $305 dollars but there wouldn't be any point buying just one now ? The collection will set your wallet back a sparse $2135 and a long with paying back a hefty £8500 university fee it would be more of a sin to purchase it to hold your favorite liquor.

 

WTF?! ...

What the font?! 

"The creative process is not performed by the skilled hand alone, but must be a unified process in which the head, heart, and hand play a simultaneous role”- Herbert Bayer

 As designers we ask ourselves the important question of "How will my particular piece of design visually communicate towards the target audience; and what message will be portrayed". Knowing this, we can take precautions in order to allow our audience to feel or notice a piece in a certain way, order, or style. There is reasons for creating a piece in this way as it's specific characteristics allow the audience to potentially remember the meaning of the artwork, or even better place an idea or meaning into their train of thought.

Political street art shows French President
 Nicolas Sarkozy in a different light.

Communication is not limited to just seeing different types of visual forms. Communication could be anything that triggers a sensory organ, which then leads to personal thought and emotion from the audience. The best forms of communication can change an individuals outlook towards a topic or issue they already have an opinion about.

There are three main disciplines of design: Design for invitation, Design for information and Design for expression. Each of these individual disciplines require different outlooks:
Design for Invitation allows an offer, service or idea to be translated into a form of communication.
Design for Information allows for complex data or information to be filtered down to a simple complex.
Lastly Design for expression allows for emotion value and ethics to be substituted to a graphical language.
All three of these disciplines are recognized in today's advertising and illustrated in the quote by Herbert Bayer (above). Illustrating that you cannot be a designer by just knowing how to use a pencil or pad, by ruling out our mindsets and our passion- design outputs would be lifeless and lacking creativity and thought. The quote teaches us that we cannot lack any part of an idea or a topic that is being performed otherwise the final product would be lifeless. Hand, heart and head have to work in unison for a creative process to be successful.
 Another key way in which the creative process is constructed is though type and font. But not just any font will usually be suited to a particular design. Manipulating and engaging with text can make or break a piece, and is often hard to know which one to choose at times but we as designers have to remember that type is just like speech in the way certain fonts will demonstrate various tones and emphasis to sentences or words. How can an audience know what type of message the design is saying if the font communicates to them a totally different message then the design at hand ? Thinking about Target Audience when placing font is important too using the example of showing something to a  younger audience, a designer would have to think about using an easy to read font and think more about the space and structure of the words.