Saul Bass

Last weekend, me and A made a special effort to go to the Kemsitry Gallery in Hoxtonia, as I had seen that it was hosting a Saul Bass exhibition, and we are both big fans of Mr Bass’s work.

Whilst this particular exhibition was a tad on the small side, it was a timely reminder both of his astonishingly powerful graphic style and also that we had been to an excellent “full blown” Saul Bass retrospective back in 2004 at the Design Museum.

Even if you haven’t heard the name Saul Bass, you will almost certainly have seen some of his posters and opening title sequences: West Side Story, The Man with the Golden Arm and Vertigo are all design classics. His trademark was simple, solid colour and bold shapes that seemed to sum up the essence of the film in one image.

During his long career as a graphic designer (Bass was a New Yorker, born 1920, died 1996) he was also responsible for some of the most instantly recognisable US Company logos, including Bell Telephone, Warner Brothers, Minolta and Quaker, all of which (with the same skill as in the film posters) seem to capture the essence of the company in one simple image.

An in depth site of his work can be found here if you fancy finding out more about this truly great man.