If you happen to grace the Google home page today (well, yesterday for some of us), you will find a bit more than the garden variety doodle. On this day, Google is tipping its hat to legendary movie title designer Saul Bass.
Bass, whose birthday is today, was responsible for the lead-ins to some of the most iconic movies in cinema history. After forging his signature geometric style in Man With the Golden Arm (1955), he went on to make his mark on Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Psycho, and North by Northwest, among many others. Check out Wikipedia for a list of Bass’s title sequences.
Some credit Bass with establishing the opening title-sequence as an art-form in and of itself. There has been an widespread interest in the craft over the past few decades, with books and entire websites, like The Art of the Title, devoted to title design.
Oh, hey! Did you know that Saul Bass also designed many of the most iconic company logos? Bass’s influence is evidence of how good design can really permeate our culture, with the work of one man becoming so instantly recognisable.
