A true innovator of title sequences: Saul Bass

The title sequence to The Man With the Golden Arm was designed and created by Saul Bass. The sequence has become known as the first to become more than simply a list of big names and producers on a screen, this sequence sets the tone of the film to the viewer. The jagged angular paper shapes Bass produced reflected the mood of the film. At the time this approach had never been exploited in quite the same way.

The title sequence to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World also designed and produced by Saul Bass. This is just another great example of Bass's work. Simple and understated his work was never egotistical. Just great functional design which achieves exactly what it sets out to do; portray the mood of the film, and provide a platform for the film titles to be displayed upon in an interesting and entertaining way.

To see more on Saul Bass, watch Bass on titles, a selection of title sequences created by the great designer. The documentary also offers an insight into design at the time and into Saul Bass as a designer on the front line of film from the 1950s onwards.

Saul Bass: Bio

"Saul Bass (May 8, 1920—April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.

During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the text racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that raced together and was pulled apart for Psycho.

Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T "globe" logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System. Bass also designed Continental Airlines' 1968 "jetstream" logo, which became the most recognized airline industry logo of the 1970s." Source: Wikipedia.

Geoff McFetridge

Geoff McFetridge seems to be one of those people who can excel in anything he turns his hand to. A renown designer, illustrator, animator, filmmaker and "all-around visual auteur" so I hear. His work is just too easy to like, the simple icon based illustration style he has become known for is what I'll be looking at. Although his work on the Virgin Suicides and Adaptation are surely worthy of note, I am just too distracted by the visual language of his illustrations.

Geoff McFetridge is a designer who is not bound by media, a new breed of creative who uses ideas over method. A kind of 21st century Renaissance man if I could be so bold. Utilizing print, film, animation and skateboards, he has become something of an icon himself. Humor plays large role in his work, using irony, witty phrases and sayings which I'm sure make perfect sense to the LA fraternity. The rest of us just have to nod and agree sometimes, but on the whole it's pretty universal stuff. Enough of that though take a look at a few examples of his work I've gathered to feast your unworthy eyes upon >>>

For more information on Geoff McFetridge check out this interview - kinda interesting. Especially the birch tree revelation. I did not know that the root systems link up! nice.

Also look up the King of Mountain site for a slightly more 'official' take.

And this interview by the Coudal Partners is really worth looking at >>>>