Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and film title sequence designer who was notable for his use of simple geometric shapes and animation to capture the mood and essence of films. He is best known for his imaginative title sequences and logo designs that used minimalist graphics to deliver powerful messages about the themes and tones of movies. His titles for films like West Side Story employed shifting colors and faint lines to represent the setting and build dramatic tension through the music, foreshadowing the film's romantic and dramatic elements.

1. Saul Bass

2. Background Info
• Born May 8th 1920 in New York City, Saul
Bass studied at the Arts Students League in
NYC, attended Brooklyn College and
worked as a freelance designer before
moving to Los Angeles in 1946
• Bass, 1920 to 1996, was an American
motion-picture designer-director who was
notable for his work in film and classic logo
design.

3. His Work
• Bass is best known for his use of simple, geometric shapes
and their symbolism. Often a simple dominant image
stands alone to deliver a powerful message.
• Bass is also known for his imaginative, animated titles,
prologues and epilogues.

4. • Bass’ uncanny ability to capture the mood of the
film using simple shapes and images.
• The shapes were often hand drawn by Bass to
create casual appearance and always packed with
a sophisticated message. This was used to great
effect in most well known posters

5. West Side Story- Analysis
• This sequence is simple as are the majority of
Bass’ work. Slow fade in as music begins to
play- yellow background reflects the ‘happy’
non diegetic soundtrack from the film
• Colour fades into orange as ‘Tonight’ begins to
play. The faint lines on the screen seem to
represent a setting, presumbly Manhattan where
West Side Story is set .
• The music soon begins to become more
romantic with the use of string instruments
which is further emphasised with the
purple/pink background.

6. • Slowly, the title of the film begins to
appear. The music chosen features a
dramatic instrumental which suggest to
the audience the film will have a
dramatic element to it.
• It can be suggested the blue
background refers to the gang featured
in the film, the Sharks, whereas the red
refers to the rival gang, the Jets.
• The typography is bold and strong as it
is in all caps this could further suggests
the film will feature a large amount of
drama.