Inspirations

An habitual doodler (..) his doodles included lettering and abstract forms, as well as sketches of people, places and imaginary landscapes. 

Saul Bass title sequence, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World by Stanley Kramer

Saul envisioned a fast cut-cut, impressionistic murder, with no blood until the very end when it swirls down the drain. 

The publicity campaign for this comedy proved controversial. Saul’s symbol featuring a flag sticking out of the coca-cola-style bottle has to be scotched when Coca-cola threatened legal action. The replacement campaign with three balloons was meant to capture the film’s light-heartedness. 

“The peeling away of layers of paper is a metaphor for the peeling away of layers of mystery in this film about a child who disappears. The symbol, a child torn out of paper, relates to the child’s absence and to there seeming to be no proof of her existence. The last letters of the word ‘missing’ gradually fade away, again emphasizing the disappearance of the child.”

In the end, the symbol was created out of the name of the film, using lettering to convey a sense of monumentality. Imposing in its own right, the size, and importance of the word ‘cardinal’ is greatly reduced in significance by the power and towering presense of “the”, the structure of which symbolises a greater power than that of the Cardinal, namely the Vatican. 

Ivan Chermayeff, The First New York International Festival Of The Arts

by Saul Bass

Anatomy Of the Murder, Saul Bass

The fragmented figure of Joan against a mosaic of vibrant colour suggests the spirit of a woman broken but not defeated. 

Various Posters by Saul Bass

The man with the Golden Arm, Saul Bass

Film Posters, Saul Bass

Saul Bass

Album covers, Saul Bass

Idea magazine (Japan), cover by Hiroshi Ohchi, 1967