Recently I wrote a paper on Alfred Hitchcock's title designer Saul Bass for I Typographic Spread assignment. In hindsight, I always felt that the paper was good and went largely unread due to the nature of the assignment. The assignment was primarily for the design of the page, not the writing of the paper. Recently it was brought to my attention that he also designed storyboards for Hitchcock as well. Thought they were pretty cool so i figured why not share them. Here are both the paper which I wrote and the storyboards i found online.
Paper:
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Saul Bass: Hitchcock’s Opener
By: Coulter Johnson
Throughout the history of cinema there can be little doubt regarding the influence and impact a man like Alfred Hitchcock brought to the form. Films like Vertigo, Psycho, and North By Northwest are all memorable cinematic experiences from start to finish. One of the oft over looked geniuses behind the ‘master of suspense’ was the man who designed the opening title sequences and posters for those films, Saul Bass (Zimmerman). Bass was a highly influential man within the world of film because he brought graphic design to the forefront of modern cinema. He achieved this by designing dynamic opening sequences that moved and brought the viewer into the film by setting the tone and atmosphere for the narrative to come (Arms). The way the lines criss and cross to form credits along with the harrowing music in the title sequence for Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece Psycho keeps the viewer engaged in the transition between the opening in the movie and what comes immediately after the opening sequence. This is highly indicative of not just his style, but also the influences that formed the basis of his work.
Bass was a student of the New Swiss or International Typographic Style. With origins in countries like Russia, Germany, and the Netherlands, the New Swiss style finally began to gain popularity in the 1940’s and ‘50’s, so much so that is started to become reproduced on an almost international scale (Terror). This largely has to do with the simple principle that the New Swiss style adheres to. “Form follows function (Terror).” While art is an important aesthetic property to think of when designing a typographic layout, all of that means little if one cannot read or understand the text. However, Does this mean that art should be ignored in the process? No. If anything what the International typographic style does is bring the two together in a balanced way that uses geometric form to guide text and make it seem more appealing to our eyes. “Even a quick study of classic Swiss style works reveals a strong attention of graphic designers to uniform design elements and strong geometric shapes (Terror).” What Saul Bass did so well was take these basic ideas and principles and apply them to a film’s opening title sequence.
One of the most obvious examples of his influences is the aforementioned opening title sequence to Psycho. The sequence features lines that join and together and stop to form the films opening text credits. The text presented then proceeds to divide and split off onto separate sides of the screen (Dawes). The lines here are the geometric form that dictates where the text will land and then dissipate. When the name of the person credited forms it is presented clearly for a few seconds and then dissipates, but still for those few seconds it stills serves its function. The sequence itself is a play on the Grid System used to organize typeface in the New Swiss Style of typography. “A grid system is a rigid framework that is supposed to help graphic designers in the meaningful, logical and consistent organization of information on a page (Terror).”
What Bass did was essentially take these basic principles and use them with motion to create an effect that is mimicked throughout Hollywood to this day. Not just in title sequences, but also on the posters he designed for movies as well. The poster for Vertigo retains a kinetic feel through the outward spiral of lines emanating from the silhouetted falling body (Dawes). Bass retains this kinetic style throughout the entire body of his work. Movies like The Shining, Casino, Spartacus, and countless other films greatly benefited from the ingenuity he had for mixing the New Swiss style with motion to create a style and technique that is still mirrored in movies and graphic design to this day.
Works Cited
Arms, Simon. “Saul Bass: The evolution of an Artist.” Noupe. July 2nd, 2012. Web. November 27, 2012.
Dawes, Brendan and Paul Zimmerman. Saul Bass on the Web. Media Temple. Web. November 27, 2012.
Terror, Diogo. “Lessons From Swiss Style Graphic Design.” Smashing Magazine. Smashing Media, July 17th, 2009. Web. November 27, 2012.
Storyboards:
