This might just be for the film geeks out there, but today would have been Saul Bass’ 93rd birthday. To celebrate, Google made this video Doodle of their logo in the style of some of Bass’ most iconic work. I’ve decided to celebrate that celebration by posting clips of the work Google is celebrating. Who’s Saul Bass? Here, I’ll show you.
Bass was a graphic designer and artist responsible for some of the most iconic posters and credit sequences in film history. The one that always stands out to me is the opening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo:
Some of Bass’ most recognizable sequences came from collaborations with Hitchcock. Here are the credits to Psycho and North By Northwest:
Of course Bass worked on many other directors. He paired up with Otto Preminger for Anatomy of a Murder and The Man With The Golden Arm:
The Man With The Golden Arm wasn’t the only Frank Sinatra movie Bass did the titles for. He also produced the opening sequence for the original Ocean’s 11:
He also did the titles for my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie Charade:
The Google Doodle also pulled from Bass’ work on the poster Stanley Kubrick movie Spartacus, though the title sequence was rather different:
Bass did the titles for dozens of films, and that would be tough to cram into one short Google Doodle. Besides the sequences linked above, Bass also did the titles for It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which I think closes out the pieces that inspired the Doodle, but let me know if you saw any I missed.
(via Google)
- Some Mad Men writers want to make a Mad Men style show about NASA
- The Vatican could use some design lessons from Bass, they used Comic Sans
- What would Breaking Bad look like in the 90’s?
