Saul Bass - innovation of the mundane.

Saul Bass was both graphic designer and Academy Award winning filmmaker. However, he is most famously known for his animated motion picture title sequences. During his 40 year career Bass had worked with notable filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. He created over 50 opening sequences for a range of films, including Sparticus, The Victors, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Goodfellas, Doc Hollywood, Cape Fear, and The Age of Innocence. Among his work are three famous title sequences: the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm in Preminger’s The Man With the Golden Arm, the text utilized as a high-angle shot of the United Nations Building in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the scrambled and disjointed text used for the opening sequence of Psycho.

Saul Bass also designed the sixth logo for the AT&T Bell system, and then designed the globe logo for AT&T after the breakup of Bell System. The logo he designed for Continental Airlines’ 1968 “jetstream” became one of the most recognized airline industry logos of the 1970s. His other corporate work includes United Airlines, Minolta, and Warner Communications. Other widely recognized logos by Bass are the United Way and Girl Scouts Logo and the Kleenex and Dixie logotypes. Bass also designed the main poster for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Born in the Bronx quarter of New York City on May 8, 1920, Saul Bass had an early developed interest in art. He studied painting at the Art Students League of Manhattan at the age of 15. Once old enough, he began attending classes taught by Gyorgy Kepes at Brooklyn College. Gyorgy Kepes was a Hungarian graphic designer who introduced Bass to László Moholy-Nagy’s Bauhaus style and Russian Constructivism. Bass worked as a commercial designer in New York until 1946. He moved to Los Angeles at that time, feeling creative constraints in New York. After freelancing for four years, Bass opened up his own studio producing work for advertising. In 1955 he renamed is studio Bass & Associates.

He began his Hollywood career by doing print work for film ads. During a collaboration with filmmaker Otto Preminger on a film poster for the 1954 film Carmen Jones, Preminger was impressed enough with Bass to ask him to produce the title sequence as well. With the new venture, Bass realized that opening sequences for movies could provide more than the opening credits, but as a way to make an experience to introduce the film. An effective opening sequence could enhance the overall experience for the audience as well as contribute to the overall mood and theme of the film.

"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"

Bass was the first to see the creative potential in something that would ordinarily appear mundane. The Man With the Golden Arm was a film by Preminger created in 1955 about a jazz musician’s struggle with his heroin addiction. The subject of the film proved to be too taboo for the mid 1950’s. With that in mind, Bass decided to create a controversial opening sequence for what will prove to be a controversial movie, featuring a black paper cut out of the arm of a heroin addict. He selected an arm as the central image, since the image of an arm has a strong relation to drug use. This opening sequence was how Bass became notorious in the film industry.

After working with Preminger, Bass began his work in kinetic typography for Alfred Hitchcock. Kinetic typography is an animation technique mixing motion with text. Text is shown over a period of time in such a way as to convey a particular idea or emotion. He created opening sequences for the films North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho. In North by Northwest, the text for the credits would appear as if they “flew” in from off screen, then fade into the beginning of the film. His work was found to be revolutionary and innovative, making Saul Bass a revered graphic designer.

Bass moved away from the optical techniques he was a pioneer of to computerized titles during his work with Martin Scorsese on the opening sequence of Casino. While average patrons may not know of the name of Saul Bass, the style of his iconic film posters is surely recognized. The array of posters he designed includes The Shining, In Harms Way, One Two Three, Love in the Afternoon, Saint Joan, West Side Story, and Bunny Lake is Missing.

Bass was considered to have a gift for have the ability to identify a central image that defines the movie, then recreating the image to become the symbol of the movie by remodernizing it. Martin Scorsese described Bass’ style as creating: “an emblematic image, instantly recognizable and immediately tied to the film.” When Saul Bass died in 1996, the New York Times published his obituary hailing him as "the minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art." It has been said that after watching one of Bass’ title sequences, one could walk out of the theater. In under a minute and using mainly visuals, he was able to summarize the film in its entirety.


Here are more examples of Saul Bass' work:

In Time for the Wintry Season

Now that the wintry season is upon us, it is time to contemplate a small wonder: the snowflake. While snow is white on a good day, with close inspection we see many inspiring palettes as Color + Design Blog noted by visiting snowcrystal.com. They go on to say that for each snowflake are individual snow crystals that create every unique pattern. Here is a brief diagram.
Broken down into a diagram, we realize the great design behind the basic snowflake, a wonder of the natural world. Let's look further into the wondrous world of snowflakes.

Typography Fan Club

It is with great pride that I say I love this bag. I am a part of the club who knows the difference between Serif and Sans-Serif fonts. Now anyone can proudly show their membership to the typography fan club while they shop for groceries, visit their favorite book store, or purposefully walk around the block carrying the bag, showing off their love of the Serif. Visit the Little Factory blog - op - it's too late. The bag is currently sold out : (

Seth Godin Does It Again

Today must have been an intellectually stimulating day for Seth Godin. He wrote another brief entry simply asking "...which comes first, the curiosity or the success?"

Godin observes that most people who read multiple blogs and many books (in my opinion, anyone who has finished a full book in the past few months must be a diabolical genius), tend to be more intellectually curious and "thirsty" for knowledge. These people tend to be innovators and quick adopters of new ideas.

Particularly in this day in age when we are bombarded by information, have an abundance of information to process, and have many means in which to receive this information, it takes time for an individual to adapt to unlimited access to knowledge.

I agree that the most intelligent people are those who prioritize their education and search for their every query - in grade school, these were the children who were unafraid to raise their hands.

How to Lose An Arguement - Seth Godin Style

With the changing landscape of our culture's social practices, one must be careful of every interaction they make. This includes personal interaction as well as online. Seth Godin recently wrote guidelines on how one would be guaranteed to lose an argument online. No one likes to be combative, but everyone feels untitled to defend their own opinions. The differentiating factor of online communication is that if you are too abrasive during a particularly heated discussion, the other party has every means to end the argument by defriending, unfollowing, etc. My favorite tip is the first - don't argue- period.

1. Have an argument. Once you start an argument, not a discussion, you've already lost. Think about it: have you ever changed your mind because someone online started yelling at you? They might get you to shut up, but it's unlikely they've actually changed your opinion.
2. Forget the pitfalls of Godwin's law. Any time you mention Hitler or even Communist China or Bill O'Reilly, you've lost.
3. Use faulty analogies. If someone is trying to make a point about, say, health care, try to make an analogy to something conceptually unrelated, like the space shuttle program, and you've lost.
4. Question motives. The best way to get someone annoyed and then have them ignore you is to bypass any thoughtful discussion of facts and instead question what's in it for the person on the other end. Make assumptions about their motivations and lose their respect.
5. Act anonymously. What are the chances that heckled comments from the bleachers will have an impact?
6. Threaten to take action in another venue. Insist that this will come back to haunt the other person. Guarantee you will spread the word or stop purchasing.
7. Bring up the slippery slope. Actually, the slope isn't that slippery. People don't end up marrying dogs, becoming cannibals or harvesting organs because of changes in organization, technology or law.
8. Go to the edges. This is a variant of the slippery slope, in which you bring up extremes at either end of whatever spectrum is being discussed.

Who Doesn't Like Music Videos?

Stop motion with knitting? Say it isn't so.

With over 700 knits, the Montreal duo Tricot Machine created this video to accompany their song "Les peaux des lievres" as part of the Portable Film Festival. It's also a great animation and song to prepare yourself for winter - not only for the palette and winter theme, but the reminder to engage in handicrafts while visiting family (i.e. not the most exciting holidays)

The Portable Film Festival is a daily online film channel that showcases one mini film each day, every day, all year. In it's third year, it has gained international interest and is solely based online. Every August they launch a new competition, where members can vote for their favorite video.

Film festivals conducted online, electronic literature...what's next?

Symbolizing Something Else...

Here are the 10 Best TV Shows of the Decade....interpreted as Minimalist Art by designer Albert Exergian and selected by the folks at Flavorwire. Exergian's series of graphic omages to popular television series includes other titles such as Charlie's Angels and Better of Ted.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Page 030 : Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seas — entire strangers to them — and dueled them dead without winking…

Self-declared non-artist Matt Kish decided to take on an ambitious, interesting, yet daunting task - create an illustration for every page of Moby Dick. that's 552 pages. Every work is created with "found" paper as the background. His goal is to create one drawing per page every day. While starting on August 5th of this year, he has 104 pages complete so far. Check out his blog to follow his progress and his website for more illustrations.

An Aside - Wilco

Grammy Award winning Wilco's secret studo loft in Chicago is every independent musician's dream. The construction of the space allows for interesting acoustics, picking up Andrew Bird's violin as well as the sound of the amps across the room. "The sixty-plus guitars sitting around the room all hummed along, as the vibrations from everything else shook and resonated the steel strings, adding even more texture to the sound. The Loft is, essentially, an instrument of its own."

Check out the entry on the Loft Blog for more photos.

The loft's "brick box" layout has also been utilized in multiple sound recordings. "The stairwell, elevator, and bathroom have all been utilized for specific sounds while recording,” says Tobias. Grocery-carrying neighbors have been known to take the stairs when Wilco is recording in the elevator.

An Aside - Brilliant? Unnecessary? Beatles?

Do you have $300? Do you want to conserve space? Do you love the Beatles? Want to have a fun party trick?

Introducing The Beatles USB flash drive. The drive contains 14 albums, 13 mini-documentaries, liner art, and rare photographs and will be available in December thanks to Apple and EMI. Only 30,000 will be made for all those Beatles fans out there. You can order yours at the Beatles Store.

This is going on the wishful-thinking Xmas wish list.

An Aside - The Wild Things

Dave Eggers has self-published his own novelization of "Where the Wild Things Are", adapting it as a "contemporary problem novel or 8-12 year olds" 'The Wild Things'. There has obviously been marketing for the nostalgic adults - due to it's presence at Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters as witnessed by yours truly. Despite any misgivings to the reasoning behind this adaptation of the treasured children's picture book, let's take a look at the design of the book cover itself...

Bringing us back to the books of our youth inviting us to touch and feel and un-zipping the zipper (to teach the function of the five senses you perverts), the book is begging for you to pick it up and hug it - except it comes shrink-wrapped.

An Aside - iPhone app of the day

The ancient Greeks were skeptical of the practice of writing because it meant that humans had no need for memorization of epic tales and speeches. Today, New Yorkers can now be skeptical of this new iPhone app Exit Strategy NYC. It takes skill to take the subway efficiently - the most effective lesson is learning which car on the train would be less crowded and leave you closest to the best exit for your destination. There is now an iPhone app for telling you which subway car to get on. Yet again, technology has allowed humans to think a little less.

1999: "Wow, there's a website for everything!"

2004: "Jeez, there's a blog for everything!"

2009: "Criminy, there's an iPhone app for everything!"

An Aside - Beautiful Trash

Can design and a splash of pink make something disgusting into a thing of beauty?

TRASH:anycoloryoulike is "a vivid art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness. " In the summer of 2008, various artists (led by Adrian Kondratowicz) created biodegradable trash bags in order to transform piles of trash into beautiful street sculptures.

Does it transform waste into a thing of beauty? Does it lift the spirits of all those who roam the streets? Or does it call attention how much trash we actually use?

If interested, you can order your own biodegradable trash bags in various colors. Or you can try to recycle more. Or be functional like the rest of us and use old Target bags.

An Aside - Angry Lil' Ghost

Inhabitots is a site dedicated to "sustainable design for the next generation". What you get is brilliant ideas that will ensure that children will understand what it means to be eco-friendly. As for the products featured, the child at heart can't help but covet them.

Take for example the "Tio" light switch by Tim Holley that teaches kids about conserving household energy. The light system is mounted to any generic household light switch. Due to the length of time that the light is on, "Tio" will change colors. At his happiest, "Tio" will be green when the light has been on for less than an hour. When the light has been switched on for over four hours, "Tio" turns orange - and he is starting to get mad. At over eight hours, "Tio" turns red and is obviously full of rage. To turn off the light, simple give "Tio" a loving pat.

An Aside - Weird but Glorious

Did you know that Japan has some of the most talented hands in fashion? This video was shown during Japan's Fashion Week in order to demonstrate the visual concept the runway show for a fashion line. Innovative - creative - and downright cute.

An Aside - Electric Literature

Electric Literature is a quarterly literary magazine that revitalizes the short story by making each issue available in whatever form of media the reader desires: paper, Kindle, e-book, iPhone, and soon audiobook. Using their Twitter, writer Rick Moody will tweet an entire story in a few days. There was also a collaboration between authors, visual artists, and musicians creating Youtube videos inspired by a single sentence in selected stories.

Electric Literature was created by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum, writers who met at Brooklyn College's M.F.A. program in 2006. Check out NYTimes full story.

The animated videos were created as part of the first issue.

An Aside - KickStarter.com

Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a CMJ Music Marathon panel about "Being Your Own Label". One of the panelists was Yancey Stickler, the Cofounder of Kickstarter, a "funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..." The site gives an opportunity for people to present their ideas while giving others the chance to fund these projects. Ideas are first submitted and approved by the site creators. The projects vary from books, art projects, films, design, activism, and music.

Among these projects is the Designing Obama text I talked about a few weeks ago.

Another interesting project that has reached success is Joseph Wain of NYC's Icons for iPhone apps. With 94 backers, he has met his goal of earning $500 and beyond, earning $1,820.

An Aside - GQ becomes iPhone app

The publisher of GQ, Conde Nast, is now among the first publishers to develop an entire magazine issue as an iPhone app. The December issue of GQ will be available as an iPhone app for $2.99. By doing this, Conde Nast is stating that they "must have a paid model" in future digital products and that other publishers have been "giving their applications away."

This is a model that could revolutionize the entire print publication world and further shows how far Apple, Inc. has come. Congrats on the 47% sales gain btw.

An Aside - Vancouverian Olympian - say it three times fast

The design of the Olympic medals for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 was just revealed with artwork by Corrie Hunt and designed by Omer Abel. The form of the medal itself was inspired by "ocean waves, drifting snow and moutainous landscapes found across Canada>" (Design Boom) The medals were based off of a large artwork of an Orca whale. Each medal depicts a section of the artwork. Each medalist will be presented with a silk-screened scarf of the original artwork along with their medal, seeing how their medal is connected to all the other athletes in the Olympic Games.

This is the back.....

This is the front...

An Aside - Too Far?

An Apple Inc.'s iPhone owner could say that the iPhone is multifunctional to the point where their daily life is simpler and certain responsibilities require far less attention. Like driving, a daily responsibility that the iPhone takes care of - WHAT?

Welcome to the iDriver - the iPhone remote controlled car. The app that allows you to do so is still under collaboration with the Spirit of Berlin Team at Freie Universitat Berlin (German university robotics team who designed the remote controlled mini van) and Appirion who created the app. Check out the video below.

I do love the iPhone as being the multi-purpose personal tool that will change civilization as we know it - but is this a little too far? What if the iPhone battery dies during a long road trip?

An Aside - Rugged Radio

It's an adorable yet RUGGED RADIO. Here we have a "green" radio from
Solène le Goff and Christophe Gouache. On the top is a thin solar panel - therefore, no batteries or electrical wires needed. The Radio Log is 80% wood and the other 20% is only comprised of components necessary to make the radio work. The "buttons" are the drilled holes on the lower right. Clever and cute. I'm a fan.

An Aside - Color Lovers Part 2

Talk about saving a project for a rainy day. Rachel Berger pulled out a paint chip every day for 100 days and wrote a description for it. She posted her favorite 40 here. Here are three examples:


07 Lipstick
What's the difference between Sarah Palin and the next vice president of the United States? Lipstick.

48 Moss Landing
Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion opens with a description of the frightening, dripping, verdancy of Oregon. It continues for many pages, and it's all true. In Portland, moss grows on the roofs of the houses, ferns sprout from cracks in the sidewalk, even the best maintained streets and buildings are prone to sliding around during the dark wet winter. One time in college, I came home for a holiday, and there were huge gray mushrooms growing out of my bedroom carpet.

57 Cool Melon
Only three times in its hundred-year history has the Crayola company changed the name of a crayon. Prussian Blue became Midnight Blue in 1958 and Indian Red was renamed Chestnut in 1999, both in response to requests from educators. In 1962, the company voluntarily changed Flesh to Peach, partially in response to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.


An interesting way to show yet again how a single color can invoke a mood.

An Aside - Inorganic Flora

Here is some work from Japanese artist Macoto Murayama, who created a "new form of plant depiction that transcends accepted (common, usual) horizons of botanical illustration": inorganic flora. Using photography and botanical drawing, the overall effect is a technical look at what are always seen as organic living things.

An Aside - Do You Take Risks?

Seth Godin talked about risk taking on his blog. Is it better to take risks or play it safe? Smarter to avoid possible conflict or to take a chance? Godin says there is a difference between those who will only eat at restaurants that are Zagat rated and those who will walk into any venue, daringly so.

"When things get interesting is when the apparently risky is demonstrably [less safe] than the actually risky. That's when we sometimes become uncomfortable enough with our reliance on the apparent to focus on the actual. Think about that the next time they make you take off your shoes at the airport."

I do take risks - but it's based off of my tendency to act on impulse. The difference is that I usually have the common sense to cover my tracks beforehand.

An Aside - Color Lovers

Did you ever have a favorite childhood story? Ever needed to create a palette and lacked the inspiration? While at working searching for Wizard of Oz fans, I came across this entry on Colour Lovers about the color palette behind the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz printed in 1900.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an innovative book not least because of the twenty four full colour plates and myriad monochromatic illustrations in which the colour changed according to the location in the story (Kansas = grey, Emerald City = green and so on). With the illustrative vignettes often encroaching on the text area, the type was cleverly printed over the top of the coloured images" (BiblioOdyssey). (BiblioOdyssey is another great blog about illustrations in general)

It just shows that inspiration can come from anywhere. An illustration from 1900 can still be relevant to what you design today.

An Aside - Green Energy

Green Puzzle from Kalomix Limited, a product design and development company based in Hong Kong, is a roof green that also provides green energy for your house. Grass grows naturally from a green paid that has flexible solar panels, converting into solar energy. The natural grass naturally converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. And you get beautiful green surroundings in an urban environment...just like my indoor landscaping "product" Kasan. Win win.

An Aside - Inspiration from Relations

I have been inspired by my old family photographs for various art projects, normally paintings and sketches. Itay Laniado is inspired by his family photos too - for designer furniture. In the following examples we see a chair, a table, and a lamp.

I find family photos inspiring due to the emotional context. In Laniado's case, he has looked at these photos long enough to pick out different genetic shapes, receiving concept ideas for product development.

What do you think?

An Aside - A bad habit

As you can tell, I am a fan of reading. I like eating too. The two do not mix. There are spills, crumbs, terrible mishaps. Until...bam....Design Boom shares a design for a new kind of reading tray by London based designer Yu-Hun Kim. Now you can read and drink simultaneously!
However, after looking at the comments section, there are some issues:

1. you can't turn pages
2. you can't read under the cup
3. you are holding a tray and book with one hand - awkwardness
4. more of a solution for an invented problem
5. all in all - a waste of time and resources.
   

cute idea - but not for the practical world.

An Aside - Digital Reading

I've been reading a lot about e-books and "digital reading" and how it is turning the media and publishing industry upside down. While downloading reading material is seen as the ultimate convenience, some traditionalists are still fight for the comfort that comes with holding a book in your hands and turning the pages. Is there a way to bring both concepts together?

I bring you.... the Infinite-Book.

Designer Ewald Neuhofer came up with this digital book that allows you to flip pages, just as you would for anything traditional publication. For example, if you were reading the times, you can still have the experience of flipping through pages and disorganizing sections, as well as folding it in small quarters to toss on the breakfast table.

I'm not so sure if the whimsy of page turning is as necessary as practicality today.

An Aside - Digital Message in a Bottle

Have you ever read the personals on Craigslist? Sophie Blackall, an illustrator living in Brooklyn, has compiled and published a book of illustrations based on the "Missed Connections" section on Craigslist.

She first started making illustrations for fun, inspired by "Missed Connections" and personal ads in the Village Voice. Blackall then published the drawings on her blog in March, catching the attention of publishers. The New York Times' Technology section featured her, saying that more often nowadays artists are grabbing " inspiration from the rich trove of materials on the Web and the world of social media."

Another example is Mark Held, who does paintings inspired by Facebook profile pictures.

An Aside - More About Blu

so we have been talking about the artist Blu for a few weeks now. Coincidentally, my friend posted this video today of a collaboration between Blu and David Ellis. This video is a little different compared to the previous Blu videos I have seen. Check it out.



David Ellis is another artist who paints on public wall spaces. His worked is aimed to interpret music and sound.

I have been loving these videos and their playful quality. They provide and imaginative look at one's every day surroundings.

An Aside - A Challenge

Core 77 recently posted a challenge
to design a product that supports the future of digital reading.

One entry, from"lunchbreath", was a humorous cartoon that actually proved genius. A Trapper-Kindle - strangely enough when I first heard about the Kindle, I was envisioning people walking around with their Kindle in some sort of case. With the latest design at $299, you can bet that I want that baby protected from the rest of my clutter. A need for personalization would come next.

An Aside: Speaking of the Recession + Music

I like music. I love my Ipod. I am aware of the recession. This product marries all three.
Yes, a cheeky, cardboard Ipod Case for 99 cents. Innovative, obvious, or super sarcasm?