Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker known for his innovative title sequences and film posters from the 1940s to 1990s. He began designing print advertisements but gained fame for his title design for Carmen Jones in 1954. Over his career, Bass employed diverse techniques for his title sequences including animation, live action, and graphic design. He is also renowned for his symbolic and impactful film posters that conveyed key elements through simplified visuals. Later, Bass took on roles as a visual consultant and storyboarded scenes for several films. He also directed two short films, winning an Academy Award for one in 1968.

1. SAUL BASS
May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996
A graphic designer and filmmaker. Known for his design of
film posters and motion picture title sequences.

2. Early Career…
• He began his time in Hollywood during the 1940s doing
print work for film ads, until he collaborated with
filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the film poster for
the film Carmen Jones in 1954. Preminger was so
impressed with Bass's work that he asked him to produce
the title sequence as well.

3. Title sequences…
• He designed title sequences
for more than 40 years, and
employed diverse film
making techniques, from cut-
out animation for Anatomy of
a Murder in 1958…
• To fully animated mini-
movies such as the epilogue
for Around the World in 80
Days in 1956…
• and also live action
sequences…

4. Movie posters…
• Saul Bass designed emblematic
movie posters that transformed
the visuals of film advertising.
• Bass’s posters, typically
developed simplified, symbolic
designs that visually
communicated key essential
elements of the film. For
example, his poster for a Man
with a Golden Arm, with a
jagged arm and off-kilter
typography, starkly
communicates the protagonist's
struggle with heroin addition.

5. ‘Visual consultant’&
‘pictorial consultant’…
• During the 1960s, Bass was asked by
directors and producers to visualize
and storyboard key scenes and
sequences within them. Bass has the
unusual credit of “visual consultant”
or “pictorial consultant” on five
films.
• Bass designed key elements of the
gladiator school and storyboarded the
final battle between slaves and
Romans John Frankenheimer, had
Bass storyboard, direct, and edit all
but one of the racing sequences for
his film. For West Side Story in 1961
Bass filmed the
prologue, storyboarded the opening
dance sequence, and created the
ending title sequence.

6. Short films…
• In 1964, Bass directed a short
film titled The Searching Eye
shown during the 1964 New
York World's Fair, coproduced
with Sy Wexler. He also
directed a short documentary
film called Why Man Creates
for which he won an Academy
Award Oscar in 1968. An
abbreviated version of that film
was broadcast on the first
episode of the television
newsmagazine 60 Minutes, on
September 24th of that year.