Saul Bass’s (1920 – 1996 ) Opening and Closing titles

When the Frank Sinatra film on drug addiction, The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), opened, a Saul Bass poster dominated cinema billboards. There were no words—only a stark, jagged arm rendered in silhouette. This image quickly became one of the most recognisable examples of modern movie poster design.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker whose work contributed to the visual language of American modernism in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His poster and title design for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) has been widely imitated and frequently plagiarised. Bass achieved this impact using the most traditional graphic device—the silhouette. Through reduction and symbolism, he mastered the icon as a communicative form.

Background

Born in New York, Saul Bass studied at the Art Students League and later at Brooklyn College, where he worked under György Kepes. Kepes, himself a leading modernist designer, had previously worked in Berlin and later collaborated with László Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. This lineage firmly placed Bass within an international modernist tradition.

After freelancing, Bass moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to work as an advertising art director. He brought with him an award from the New York Art Directors’ Club, gained for an advertisement for Tylon Cold Wave (“contains TYO”)—a piece that stood out sharply against the conventionally commercial work of the time. Through this work, Bass introduced West Coast commercial design to the disciplined modernism of East Coast figures such as Lester Beall and Paul Rand.

By 1950, Bass had opened his own studio. From here emerged a remarkable body of corporate logo design, including work for AT&T (Bell System), Quaker Oats, and Warner Communications. Saul Bass & Associates also produced identity systems for airlines such as United and Continental. In one notable example, Continental required a culturally neutral yet memorable symbol to support its expansion into Pacific Far East routes. Bass delivered a solution that extended consistently across aircraft, vehicles, uniforms, tickets, baggage tags, in-flight materials, and ephemera—demonstrating the rigour and scale of modern corporate identity design.

Film Title Sequences and Opening Titles

Saul Bass is perhaps best known for redefining the opening title sequence as an integral part of cinema. His work with directors such as Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and later Martin Scorsese, transformed title design into a narrative and emotional prologue.

The opening title sequence for West Side Story (1961) is exemplary in its elegance and restraint. Bass carries the audience forward using what appear, at first, to be simple graphic elements. A sharp, whistled motif arrests attention as the screen opens onto a vivid yellow field punctuated by black vertical lines. As Leonard Bernstein’s score unfolds, colour and rhythm shift in carefully measured stages—yellow to red, then to deeper grape tones—mirroring changes in musical pace and mood.

The vertical lines gradually begin to transform. As the music accelerates and then slows, the colour palette moves through orange, green, and blue. By the time the title West Side Story settles at the bottom of the frame, the abstraction resolves into an aerial view of 1960s Lower Manhattan. What began as a graphic form becomes an architectural reality—a hallmark of Bass’s visual storytelling.

Closing Credits and Visual Navigation

The closing credits of West Side Story offer a sharp contrast to the static credit rolls typical of the era. Instead of scrolling vertically, the camera moves across a graffiti-covered wall. It pauses, moves closer to individual credits, then pulls away, continuing its search across a surface dense with marks and illegible text.

Here, movement replaces passive reading. The viewer actively searches for legible information, guided—but not overwhelmed—by the camera. This approach reinforces Bass’s belief that design should engage the audience as participants rather than spectators.

Saul Bass: Posters, Logos, and Legacy

Across movie posters, corporate logos, and film title sequences, Saul Bass demonstrated an extraordinary ability to distil complex ideas into simple, enduring forms. Whether working on The Man with the Golden Arm, Cape Fear (1991), or North by Northwest (1959), his visual language remained consistent: bold shapes, symbolic reduction, and absolute clarity of intent.

Bass’s influence extends far beyond graphic design. His work reshaped how audiences experience film, branding, and visual communication, securing his place as one of the most influential American designers of the twentieth century.

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