The Columnist Without a Column: Saul Bass

As per Google's current daily theme, it seems apt to indeed be commemorating the 93rd birthday of graphic design legend, Saul Bass. Although he passed away seventeen years ago, Bass is still a huge influence on modern design, whether it be movie posters, advertising, TV credits, company logos, or the ubiquitously cool T-shirt designs so prominently featuring his style of art. Not only an artist/designer, Bass also worked on a number of films in a greater capacity, including working on Spartacus, Grand Prix, West Side Story and Psycho in various storyboard/advisor/consultant roles, and working with directors as prominent as Hitchcock, Kubrick, Frankenheimer, Wilder and Scorsese.

On top of his extensive film work, Bass also designed a number of corporate logos, including Continental Airlines, General Foods, Quaker Oats, United Airlines, US Postage and Warner Communications (logos below from Wikipedia).

Some of the title sequences Bass is famous for include that for The Seven Year Itch, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, Exodus, Ocean's Eleven, Big, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino. To demonstrate what a legend the man is you just have to check out his brilliant signature - he signs his surname with a bass fish!