April 25: Saul Bass, the Man with the Golden Arm

Graphic designer Saul Bass, who created movie posters and title credits for Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, died on this date in 1996. He was trained at the Art Students League and at Brooklyn College, where Gyorgy Kepes, an Hungarian emigré, introduced Bass to Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism. Bass created the poster for Preminger’s 1954 film, Carmen Jones, and immediately became a sought-after artist who innovated in the creative use of opening and closing credits to set mood and punctuate meaning. Among the films he designed for were The Man with the Golden Arm, Psycho, Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, Around the World in 80 Days, West Side Story, Spartacus, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence. Bass also designed several iconic corporate logos, including the AT&T “bell” logo and United Airlines’ 1974 “tulip” logo. To watch him speak about aesthetics and money, click here. To see his opening credits for The Man with the Golden Arm (in black and white), click here.

“Today Bass’ visual style is echoed everywhere from all forms of advertising to the most prestigious of web site designs.” —Tony Nourmand