Even if you don't know his name, you've seen his work: the hypnotic, dizzying poster for Vertigo (and its iconic opening credit sequence), the vaguely horrifying original poster for The Shining, and a pretty sizable selection of household logos, from Lawry's to the goddamn Girl Scouts. On top of that, legendary graphic designer Saul Bass has done the title sequences for a number of movies for Martin Scorsese, including Casino, Goodfellas, and Cape Fear, Otto Preminger's The Man With the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder and Exodus), and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Psycho, and North By Northwest, just to name a few. It's Saul Bass and his wife Elaine (who too rarely gets her proper credit) who essentially reinvented what opening credits for a film could and should be. Bass once proclaimed the absolute importance of quality credits and opening shots stating that he "had felt for some time that audience involvement with a film should begin with its first frame." He's got a point. His work for Hitchcock, for instance, was uniquely capable of setting the mood for the director's greatest hits while staying sleek, stylish, and unapologetically artistic.
Saul Bass's Only Credit as Director Is a Weird Horror Movie About Ants
The iconic designer dabbled in directing to truly bizarre results.