Saul Bass

ART Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design Design historian Pat Kirkham explores the work and legacy of Saul Bass, who created memorable posters and title sequences for such films as Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and Otto Preminger's "The Man With the Golden Arm. " Bass also designed many iconic corporate logos and was a talented filmmaker in his own right. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu Frederic Amat The Barcelona-based polymath has had success as a painter, set designer, sculptor and filmmaker.

Google paid animated homage Wednesday to iconic designer and artist Saul Bass with one of its more lively Doodles. To mark what would have been the movie title designer's 93 rd birthday, the Google cartoon recaps several of Bass' films using his signature jagged edges and scattered text to the tune of Dave Brubeck's "Unsquare Dance. " Bass, born in New York in 1920, worked in Hollywood with such film greats as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

Google paid animated homage Wednesday to iconic designer and artist Saul Bass with one of its more lively Doodles. To mark what would have been the movie title designer's 93 rd birthday, the Google cartoon recaps several of Bass' films using his signature jagged edges and scattered text to the tune of Dave Brubeck's "Unsquare Dance. " Bass, born in New York in 1920, worked in Hollywood with such film greats as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

ART Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design Design historian Pat Kirkham explores the work and legacy of Saul Bass, who created memorable posters and title sequences for such films as Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and Otto Preminger's "The Man With the Golden Arm. " Bass also designed many iconic corporate logos and was a talented filmmaker in his own right. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu Frederic Amat The Barcelona-based polymath has had success as a painter, set designer, sculptor and filmmaker.

It is indeed time for the creative genius of artist Saul Bass to be recognized ("A sharp eye for design," Feb. 20). In the early '70s, I began classes in art history at Long Beach Community College with his short documentary, "Why Man Creates." Witty, fun and historically accurate, it heralded the subject of creativity. One brief scene engraved in memory was an interview between a man and a woman. She started asking questions in English, to which he replied in the same. However, numbers soon replaced words and the screen rapidly filled up with numbers.

Saul Bass, graphic designer and film maker, has been named the 1986-87 Regent's Lecturer in UCLA's art department. Bass has designed corporate trademarks, directed special sequences in feature films and received an Academy award in 1968 for "Why Man Creates," a documentary about what motivates people to create. Bass is currently teaching an undergraduate design course in his studio.

Saul Bass, a graphic designer who created internationally known trademarks and innovative film titles for such features as "The Man With the Golden Arm," "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "West Side Story," has died. He was 75. Bass, chairman and creative director of the Bass/Yager & Associates design firm, died Thursday of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Among his myriad accolades was a 1968 Academy Award for best documentary short subject for his film "Why Man Creates."

Horizontal and vertical bars come and go, evoking the mania of Norman Bates as the opening credits roll in "Psycho." A mass of Las Vegas neon whirls as the body of Robert De Niro falls at the beginning of "Casino." Such was the genius of Saul Bass, the American graphic designer who specialized in movie title sequences and worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and others to capture the essence of their most memorable films -- without giving the plots away.

DURING the classic studio era in Hollywood, movie title sequences were generic. "Every studio had its own look," says film historian Jan-Christopher Horak. "They did [titles] the same way; just the names changed." But when the studio system started to wane in the 1950s, title designs began to evolve. "They started doing more inventive things," says Horak. "The film begins over the titles or you have an open book and the pages will be turning."

** 1/2 Smithereens, "Blow-Up," Capitol. The Smithereens blasted onto the scene with one of the great rock debut albums of the '80s and haven't matched it since. Still, LP No. 4 evidences growth, with romanticism slightly less mopey and arrangements more adventurous (like the successfully string-laden "Too Much Passion"). Extra '60s-movie-buff points for cover art from titles-meister Saul Bass. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).

DURING the classic studio era in Hollywood, movie title sequences were generic. "Every studio had its own look," says film historian Jan-Christopher Horak. "They did [titles] the same way; just the names changed." But when the studio system started to wane in the 1950s, title designs began to evolve. "They started doing more inventive things," says Horak. "The film begins over the titles or you have an open book and the pages will be turning."

Horizontal and vertical bars come and go, evoking the mania of Norman Bates as the opening credits roll in "Psycho." A mass of Las Vegas neon whirls as the body of Robert De Niro falls at the beginning of "Casino." Such was the genius of Saul Bass, the American graphic designer who specialized in movie title sequences and worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and others to capture the essence of their most memorable films -- without giving the plots away.

It is indeed time for the creative genius of artist Saul Bass to be recognized ("A sharp eye for design," Feb. 20). In the early '70s, I began classes in art history at Long Beach Community College with his short documentary, "Why Man Creates." Witty, fun and historically accurate, it heralded the subject of creativity. One brief scene engraved in memory was an interview between a man and a woman. She started asking questions in English, to which he replied in the same. However, numbers soon replaced words and the screen rapidly filled up with numbers.

Saul BASS falls into that category of artists whose imagery has become far more recognizable than their names. You may not have heard of Bass, but his designs provided nothing less than a defining aesthetic for an era of American popular culture. Chances are you've been seeing his work most of your life without realizing it, in darkened movie theaters, along the sides of jet planes, hidden in your spice cabinet and even emblazoned on your telephone bill.

Saul Bass, a graphic designer who created internationally known trademarks and innovative film titles for such features as "The Man With the Golden Arm," "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "West Side Story," has died. He was 75. Bass, chairman and creative director of the Bass/Yager & Associates design firm, died Thursday of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Among his myriad accolades was a 1968 Academy Award for best documentary short subject for his film "Why Man Creates."

When pop legend and world-class eccentric Prince decided that "Prince" no longer held sufficient intrigue, he didn't just change his name. He changed his name to a logo: *** As it happens, was not out to lunch but, in his ***ly way, was merely fulfilling the manifest destiny of '90s culture: replace the literal withthe symbolic, the verbal with the visual. "We are truly bombarded by images," says commercial-art titan Saul Bass, designer of the United Airlines, Alcoa and AT&T logos.

EVIDENTLY, THE magistrate fancied himself an art director. After the breakup of AT&T in 1983, in which the portion of the conglomerate that kept the AT&T name separated from the regional telephone companies, U.S. District Judge Harold Green ordered the new, smaller AT&T to stop using the familiar bell-in-a-circle logo. In stepped designer Saul Bass, of Los Angeles-based Saul Bass/Herb Yeager Associates, with a new company logo.

** 1/2 Smithereens, "Blow-Up," Capitol. The Smithereens blasted onto the scene with one of the great rock debut albums of the '80s and haven't matched it since. Still, LP No. 4 evidences growth, with romanticism slightly less mopey and arrangements more adventurous (like the successfully string-laden "Too Much Passion"). Extra '60s-movie-buff points for cover art from titles-meister Saul Bass. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).

Remember these movies? Their opening credits became classics: A naked baby bounces up into a pale blue sky, a pink airborne cherub. ("The World According to Garp," title sequence: R/Greenberg.) A black cat, young and lean, prowls dangerous alleys, his eyes at times the only spots of light on the screen. ("A Walk on the Wild Side," title sequence: Saul Bass.