Saul Bass Tribute Continued - Type Tuesday: Title sequence and poster art of The Man with the Golden Arm

In the 1955 film, The Man with the Golden Arm from director Otto Preminger, the title sequence caused quite the buzz, and the film propelled Bass to the status of Master of Film Title Design. Bass had single-handedly reinvented the movie title as an art form! It's stated that before this film, the opening titles of the cast and crew of movies were so dull, that projectionists would only pull back the curtains to reveal the screen once they’d finished. [1]

The film is about a Jazz musician played by Frank Sinatra, who is struggling to overcome his heroin addiction. Knowing that the arm was a powerful symbol of heroin addiction, in a controversial decision (for a controversial film), instead of using the famous face of the films star, Bass chose to use the design of the arm for the films titles as well as the films poster. [2]

(video link at the end of post)

In this title sequence we see Bass use simple geometric shapes and lines accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's Jazz soundtrack, to help set the tone of the film. Some have compared the lines to a syringe piercing the skin of the main character. Others have compared it to the veins in the arm. I can see both comparisons as true.

I think it can be said, that it may also be cards being dealt by the main character of the film, as he was at one time a skilled card dealer. As the title sequence progresses, we see the cards being stacked, albeit in a precarious way, and we watch as the cards come tumbling down. (However, in my research of the opening I found nothing stated by Bass or anyone else, to support this idea.)

Although much has been written about Bass's arm design in the title, and on the movie poster, and not much new can be added that hasn't been said before, I'll just relay what was written on the website saul-bass.com:  "Bass created the famous jagged arm design, suggesting the jarring and disjointed existence of a drug addict. With this design, Bass exploited what he termed the significance of content in design." [3]

Title sequence "The Man with the Golden Arm" Link

References
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 [1] - [2]: Design Museum www.designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass

[3]:  www.saul-bass.com by Tony Nourmand: This article was published in the international magazine, Patek
Philippe, Number 9, Spring / Summer 2000

Saul Bass Tribute Continued - Type Tuesday: Title sequence of North by Northwest

(video link at the end of post)

In Alfred Hitchcock's quick-paced espionage thriller, North by Northwest, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) finds himself running for his life as he's pursued across most of the United States. During this massive  cross-country chase, he finds himself not only mistaken for a U.S. agent, but implicated as a suspect in the murder of a U.N. official. All of this leads his normally sheltered, and privilege life to intersect with foreign spies, counter-spies, the FBI, the police, and a mysterious beautiful blonde. (Eva Marie Saint) [1] Ahhh... If only graphic design and advertising were truly this exciting.

Saul Bass's title sequence opens with lines crossing the screen and intersecting in rapid succession,  just as the lives of the characters in the film do.

The lines then begin to form a grid and the names of the cast move quickly up and down the screen as if they were on an elevator, all the time staying in perfect perspective with the lines of the grid.

The concept of the elevator soon makes sense as the grid dissolves into an live shot of a New York City skyscraper, with traffic rushing here and there, again in perfect perspective, and reflected in the mirrored façade of the building.

 North by Northwest Title Sequence Link

References
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1. IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/

Type Tuesday: PSYCHO

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's ground breaking film, Psycho. This film is credited with inventing the genre of the modern horror film. As most of us who attended design school know, the opening title was designed by the Master of Title Design, Saul  Bass (1920-1996). This is my opportunity to pay respect to him. Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking at Mr. Bass's work on such films as Psycho, and his contributions to Graphic Design over all. For those of you who may have never heard of Saul Bass, he has been credited with reinventing, and turning film title sequence into an art form. As a student at the famous Art Students League and at Brooklyn College,  he came under the influence of Gyorgy Kepes and that of Russian Constructivist typography and Bauhaus design theory.[1] Bass however was able to take those principles of thought and mold it to his own design sense and style of visual story telling, adding a certain avant-garde feel, as is evident in the work that I will be highlighting in my tribute to him. His corporate work has included corporate identities for United Airlines, AT&T, Minolta, Bell Telephone System and Warner Communications. He also designed the poster for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and for the Academy Awards celebrations from 1991-1996 [1]

Today's pick, Psycho, showcases his ability to use the simplicity of horizontal and vertical bars cutting and slicing across the screen.

 

The opening set to the score by Bernard Herrmann, sets an unnerving feeling for the viewer. The bars cut the the type used for the credits at the opening of the film.

The title PSYCHO it's self fractures, foreshadowing the mental state of Norman Bates.
(video link at the end of post)






Not only was Bass responsible for the title design of the film, he is also credited as Pictorial Consultant, and storyboarded the famous shower scene and stated in 1973 that he was invited by Hitchcock to direct it. This is a claim that is definitively contradicted by both Janet Leigh and Assistant Director Hilton Green. Janet Leigh points out in Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Hitchcock met with Bass and gave him detailed instructions concerning the scene, from which Bass then developed storyboard pictorial ideas [2] I have included the storyboard [3] for fun, so let the "Norman Debates" continue. (sorry, I couldn't pass up that chance for a cheesy pun!)

"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and
the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story
in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning
the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would
already have an emotional resonance with it"
—Saul Bass

Link for PSYCHO Title Sequence

References
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1. RIT Graphic Design Archive:  http://library.rit.edu/gda/designer/saul-bass
2. wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bass
3. splinder.com: http://and.splinder.com/tag/saul+bass

Your mom likes opening credits. Type Tuesday: Napoleon Dynamite

When trying to think of what movie I wanted to talk about this week, I started to think of how the fall is upon us, and kids are returning to school after the Labor Day weekend. So the natural and only choice I could come up with, was Napoleon Dynamite.

(video link at the end of post)

 

I have to say that I love this movie! In a time of over production and reliance on CGI it's such a refreshing change to see opening credits like this, and they fit so well with the story. In all the shots for the opening, they show objects or food that appear in the movie as part of Napoleon's life.

The use of hand written type on food that Napoleon, or one of the other characters eats in the movie [1] , is a genius and fun idea that Director Jared Hess and Cinematographer Aaron Ruell, the guy that also plays Kip in the movie came up with.

Each food item or object is placed over a very textured, vibrant or muted, but always rich color palette of carpet. According to an interview with Hess on the website artofthetitle.com, he got the carpet from a guy he knew in his neighborhood who owned a carpet shop. [2] This is one of the subtle touches that lends to the organic feel that Hess was looking for. All of these images accompanied by the song "We're Going to Be Friends" by the band The White Stripes, sets the over all tone of the film. It shows that this isn't your ordinary movie about teens, it's an extraordinary movie about ordinary teens, and the innocence, vulnerability, and hilarity of growing up.

Napoleon Dynamite Opening Credits Link

"Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed
when silly thoughts go through my head
About the bugs and alphabet
and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet
that you and I will walk together again
Cause I can tell that we are gonna be friends
yes I can tell that we are gonna be friends"

—"We're Going to Be Friends" The White Stripes

References:
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1.  wikipedia.org
2. artofthetitle.com

sk8's Up!

As the summer draws to a close this Labor Day Weekend, many people will be heading to the beach. I'll be staying here in Philly as I do most weekends. But the idea of the beach, and sand, and surf got me thinking about a cool post. While all the surfers will be hitting the waves all over the U.S.A., why not talk about the city and all the sidewalk surfers. (a term for skateboarding, that I've always loved!) After all, Philly, and LOVE Park are known all over the world as an awesome place to skate!

I got my first "real" skateboard in the summer of 1985, not the crappy plastic kind I had when I was 9, but one made of wood, and with a cool design on the bottom! Although I'd like to tell you I was awesome at it, I sucked! Big Time! So... at some point I had to face it, It didn't matter how much I would read THRASHER Magazine, I was never gonna be any good at skateboarding. But I did love skateboard art, and the art thing was working for me, so I kept the board until my first year of art school here in Philly, and then sold it for drinking money.

Anyway, here's a brief look at Skateboard Art & Graphics.

When you look back to the 80's most of the graphics fell into two categories:

1. The Comic Book style of dismembered body parts such as hands screaming, skeletons and monsters with eyes popping out of their noggins, zombies in all their slimy glory, and other Punk looking characters.




The most well known artist of this category is probably Jim Phillips, who led the art and design for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the mid 80's.

Here's a cool example of his art!




Visit his site at:

http://www.jimphillips.com

2. The vibrant strait up graphics using lines, dots, and animal patterns.

The graphics would often use vertigo inspiring shapes in fluorescent colors, and of course the famous checker pattern, linking it again to the Punk Movement and it's idea of anti-establishment.

This 80s Vision Psycho Stick goes for $850.00 at Vintage Surf and Skate Emporium




http://www.vintagesurfandskateemporium.com.au/shop/80s-vision-psycho-stick-p-167.html


So in doing research for this weeks post I found this great book on skateboards that you should check out! DISPOSABLE: A History of Skateboard Art. It's by skateboard artist Sean Cliver, and gives an awesome in-depth look at skateboard art and graphics!  It's on my must have books about art!

Here's a link to info about the book:

www.disposablethebook.com

All right kids, have yourself an awesome holiday weekend!