Here is my paper on Saul Bass, which I didn't know until now was one of my favorite designers. Enjoy!
Saul Bass: Design is Thinking Made Visual
Saul Bass was a pioneer and ground breaking designer and director. Bass broke into American cinema and changed Hollywood tradition forever. With a style unmatched and so fresh, Bass rose as a designing genius. He redefined film’s visual language with jagged-print objects and use of broken type, liberating many designers to come. His work was daring, constructed with bold, confident lines and simple images, recalling Soviet commercial design of the ‘20s while adding an American twist.
Born in the Bronx in 1920, Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under Gyorgy Kepes; who introduced him to the Bauhaus style and Russian Constructivism that his later titles highly favored. His work could be summarized by his motto of “symbolize and summarize”, always carefully choosing single silhouetted images to quickly set the tone of the films he worked on.
He became visual consultant for Hollywood’s greatest, from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, and Martin Scorsese. Some of his most noted credits include: The Man with the Golden Arm, The Seven Year Itch, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Psycho, Ocean’s Eleven, Spartacus, Cape Fear, Goodfellas, and West Side Story. Bass soon became the undisputed master of film title design, turning neglected titles into integral parts of the film. He turned movie titles into art forms, with The Man with the Golden Arm being one of his most acclaimed pieces.
Bass was also recognized for his logo design. He was responsible for some of the most iconic and remembered logos in North America, which include: Bell, AT&T, Exxon, Continental Airlines, United Way, Avery International, Kleenex, Lawry’s, Girl Scouts of USA, United Airlines, and Quaker Oats.
A quote describing the importance of titles:
"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it."
Bass’ work would go on to inspire many who would adapt if not replicate his iconic style into their own works. Some of the most famous adaptations include Spike Lee’s Clockers and Florence Deygas and Olivier Kuntzel’s titles for Catch Me If You Can.
These imitations serve as a tribute to a one of our greatest American designers. By the end of his life, Saul Bass created over 50 title sequences for Preminger, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Frankenheimer, and Scorsese. He died in 1996 at the age of 75, leaving a prolific career spanning over 40 years.
Here's what some people are talking about on the almighty Facebook : Is There an Upside to all the downsides of REcession? it is the beauty of "constraints forcing creative solutions"
1. How can we use the downturn to inspire new growth? how can we create new business opportunities? 2. A silver lining to a downturn is that reducing waste can become a generative activity. In other words, being forced to tighten one's belt by external circumstances is more likely to generate creative solutions than a voluntary tightening during good times, when there is less at stake. 3. There is an Eskimo proverb that says: "The storm is the time to fish."
alright-i know everyone has posted about these 77 design gifts under $77-but i have to post this because it is something i have always wanted. Straws, beverages, and old school soda bottles.
This sounds similar to steve's honors presentation - discussing mediums-but with a some minor changes.
Brands, social, clutter and the sundae More than a catchy title-mr. godin provides us with some insights on companies (like facebook and twitter) & their advertising goals.
They are asking, "how can we use these new tools to leverage our existing businesses?" They want to use the thing they have (money) to get the thing they need (attention) and are basically trying to force ads onto a medium that just doesn't want them.
i say just get our of here! The clutter is going to get a lot worse. Marketers and free media are drawn to each other, even if the results aren't always very good. Until marketers get off the greed train, though, it's going to be a long time between pots of gold.
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking."
Prototype 02 Exhibition An exhibition of prototype's from product designers, furniture designers, architects, and creatives.
I thought some of these goodies were SUPER NEAT!! what i really took away from these works were the cohesive look & themes throughout the projects in other words: UNITY!
An international conference in Turin, Italy, last week had a much narrower focus, and tried to outline what constitutes good design policy.
Now also the European Commission is looking at design as a tool for innovation, in the hope of creating a shared European design policy, while the Italian Government is working on the same for Italy.
"This is the first platform [on design policy] where different nations from around the world can share their knowledge, insights and challenges and learn from each other, in order to effect better policies in their countries or trading blocks (EU)," said the cordial and gregarious Thomson during his introduction. "By bringing together many stakeholders within this previously unacknowledged international community of practice, we hope to influence nations to build better design policies that will promote social, economic and sustainable goals, practice and behaviour, will improve societies and not least, will enable the growth of design as a common language for all."
One of the main objectives: The first stage of this transformation was urbanistic: a new strategic plan set out the future urban development of the city, moved a lot of the public services from the historic city centre to a new boulevard about 1 kilometre west, and stimulated the transformation of old industrial areas into new mixed work/living/entertainment areas. Add to that a new metro system, restoration and pedestrianisation in the city centre and you realise how much the city physically changed.
The 15th edition of the EUROMOLD fair takes place in Frankfurt (3-6 Dec.) covering the product development process from the first idea to final finishing. This year we take a closer look at new materials and technologies, research projects, and the works of upcoming designers.
Jay, it turns out, was trained in Industrial Design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, and grew up surrounded by cars and mechanisms--his dad was a designer for GM. So it might be fair to say that much of his success building fictitious worlds for George Lucas and Pixar is built on an ability to design in the real world. After a long day sketching concepts, Schuster's fond of going home and unwinding by building furniture, often from old aircraft parts he gleans from a warehouse in the East Bay.
Making all these objects look right--and look consistent--is mostly a result of designing them with the user in mind, even if the user doesn't exist."
There is an inherent importance in having a conscious awareness of our manner of speech. Uhhh....or something like that-i was trying to sound fancy like The Professor. The main take away is when presenting an idea be aware of all the "interconectivity" (yea i made it up), potential and it's implication.
here's the secret-your tone should be-educational+flirtatious+serious.
OMG-STEVE-SUPAMAN-GIANACA, THAT WAS AWESOME MAN!! if you didn't see his presentation today in class-you missed out in life, BIG TIME. so cool beans man. woop woop!!! go supaman!
This flat bulb is is 1/3 smaller than a typical bulb designed by Korean designer Joonhuyn Kim. The site i found my flat friend on is called Unplggd-a website dedicated to smarter homes & fewer wires. With the increase in environmental degradation and pollution it is important to conserve every way possible-if even if it means our light bulbs need to lose weight.
hey guys! just a lil update— the draft of our research paper is due with our simple animation next class. Aren't you excited???! oh I sure am, I haven't written a paper since spring '08!
Unveiled Monday, the "Frustration-Free Packaging" initiative consists of a handful of top-selling toys and electronics that Amazon has gotten the manufacturers to re-package in a more streamlined fashion. We all have suffered the wounds of trying to open shipped goods-but not anymore my friends! The goal: get rid of unfriendly clamshells, wasteful overpackagaing and other ill-conceived wrappers which with very persuasive and telling pictures this gallery of users & buyers have succeeded in creating streamline & simple packaging for all amazonian shipped treats.
No need to be afraid our days of injured & bleeding nubs & phalanges is over. Check out the Gallery of Wrap Rage
This is a really long post-but here are the main ideals:
Stories really matter, Permission matters, Marketing is tribal, Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted, Attack ads don't always work, We get what we deserve.
just a reminder of what seemed like the looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnngst political campaign in history. guess we know why they say are "running for office", because it's a like watching a gosh darn marathon in slow motion that has pit stops!!
Doing your part for the environment doesn’t have to be boring, and you don’t have to stop doing the things you love. Having fun and doing it in a sustainable way, that’s the vision of Sustainable Dance Club.
*SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: SMOKING ISN'T AS COOL AS IT USED TO BE. And it isn't good for babies and stuff. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut this article was cool.(to me). *WARNING: BIG MANLY MACHO QUOTE AHEAD:
"He can't be a man because he doesn't smoke [syncopated pause] the same cigarette as me."
Yep. It's official, if you don't smoke, eat, wear, or listen to the same stuff to the people who think they are the gold standard of manliness/womanliness/fashionableness/or intelligentness, truth is—you may become shunned for not buying the latest urban outfitter-apple-21-air jordan-new yorker times-pro-anything mac capitalist and liberal-pack of marlboro unfiltered mint slim lights...GASP! You didn't know? Or did you? And you yourself are a shunner of all not things not according to your standards! I leave you with the remainder of the article & pictures of little smoking children.
"When your product becomes the badge for a tribe, you sell a lot of products. The Stones don't mean "a man" in the sense of a homo sapien. They mean "a man" in sense of "someone worthy of my respect." Not in my tribe, not worth it... Brooks Brothers was the badge for a generation of grey-suited men. Che t-shirts are the badge for a cadre of activists. The Allen & Co. retreat is the badge for a tiny cabal of media titans. It's not easy to become the badge, but it's a worthy destination. Key truth: you can't be the badge for everyone. In order for the tribe to exist, it must have insiders. And you can't have insiders without outsiders."
Products have power. Our work at large has power. "Things" have the capability to influence, inspire, and provoke. But these "things" that we use to separate and somewhat dignify ourselves are not true indicators of anything but sentiment. Followings are catalysts for diversion. You point and gawk now, you scurry and conform later. *WARNING: This is brain juice people, drink up. MMHmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
So if you're a big time capitalist profit manic and refusing to become an environmental liberal, have no fear!!! Your worries about crossing over to what you're probably calling the "dark green side" can be wiped away thanks to the good ol' Clorox clan. Because of the recession, Clorox (the bleach maker), has found a way to make profits by going green!!! Isn't that fantastic!? Their new Green Works & Burt's Bees lines are flyin off the shelves as we speak. Their products are free of petrochemicals and contain plant and mineral-based ingredients that are biodegradable...well at least the cleaning products do, not really sure about the Burt's Bees—I think those are just natural, but great non-the less!
So if you haven't seen the light yet I's sure you're been blinded by my profit maintaining-if-not-increasing green ways. Green is the new black people!
well...at least untill 2 days ago. "*@$^#%#@%^@*!!!&^%#!@!!!" Yea, I'm mad about it. The "Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” was open through oct.31st. in the was installed on 7th ave. Now a quote from the great Banksy himself:
“I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming,” Banksy says in a statement, “but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing.” It may not be the Rites of Spring, but it’s fun.
Well really power to everyone. It looks like consultancies are pushing for design that is a lot more female friendly. We all know this 'is man's world', but that doesn't mean we have be confused in it. This new consciousness for more female friendly design was inspired by an internal movement (femmeden) at Smart Design which was founded by four international women: Erica Eden (American), Agnete Enga (Norwegian), Yvonne Lin (Chinese-American), and Gina Reimann (British).
We are dedicated to drawing connections between social, cultural, and economic changes in design to satisfy the unmet needs of women consumers.
How refreshing...their grassroots revolution works on everything—from lowering out of reach shelving for the average 5'2'' american woman, to illustrating inherent gender differences that are vital to understand for the success of good design. (yea—big things poppin) Work to improve the female (consumer) experience people!! There are more of us anyway.
Cheers! ps: check out the blog for lady business near you.
The world according to Godin tells us to be careful about turing our talents and passions into bankable bucks. Sure it seems cool to make money off your lyrical skills, but you might just end up selling out and thrown into commercial land. He says making money off yourself calls for you to corrupt the beauty of it. Not cool in my book. Godin says maybe instead of doing what you love, find something you can love to do. He tells a story of a friend who had a passion for music and found a job doing pr for a record label. He ended up HATING IT! He got stuck in the crazed and frantic world of pr without coming remotly close to actually working with music. He was SOL as someone may say.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION MY PASSIONATE PEERS! The love of you life may leave you in tears.
hey hey! some some cool class happenings going on today 10.16.08 we had Nusrat Durrani guest lecture & present in our class today. here's something he's & mtv world has been working on...DRUM ROLL PLEASE....PULL BACK CURTAINS..!! MTV IGGY!!! whoooooo hoooo. man this is cool folks. it was so intresting how he pulled from his travel experiences and passion for music to create this new global network. this thing is so spot on with the world today it's crazy! it fits perfectly with our blogging and interconnected society. we want customization and the ability to share and learn about personal experiences. it's awesome. he said he didn't think we were ready for it in the pass, i'd agree. but now, this what we're asking for. intelligent, informed, diverse, passionate connections.
THE GOAL: "Generating tangible solutions that make a lasting difference in people's lives."
Where are we supposed to go? What is our destination? I answer you: forward & the future. How do we get there? allow me to copy & paste:
When it comes to social-impact messaging, the key advice is don't be drab; make it intriguing and make it look as fabulous as the new beer commercial. Generate mileage by utilizing the same attention-grabbing strategies you would for a consumer-based product.
