Printed Originals presents
Saul Bass Posters
Design · Saul Bass · 1920–1996
The idea: one image
II · The idea
One shape could carry a whole film.
- One figure
- One gesture
- One word
The same symbol often ran through the poster, the press ads and the opening titles. Several famous “Saul Bass posters” are nothing of the kind; this page is careful about which are his.
III · Life
New York Los Angeles
- 1920Born in the Bronx, 8 May
- 1936Art Students League, on a scholarship
- 1938Warner Bros., New York: lettering and paste-up, $20 a week
- 1944Night classes with György Kepes: Bauhaus ideas of image, montage and type
- 1946Moves to Los Angeles as an art director
- 1954Carmen Jones: his first Preminger poster and title sequence
- 1955The Man with the Golden Arm: one image, from poster to titles
The longer story
Bass was born in the Bronx on 8 May 1920, into a Yiddish-speaking family. From 1936 to 1939 he studied at the Art Students League as a scholarship student, and in 1938 he started at Warner Bros. in New York as a lettering and paste-up man. In 1944–45 he took night classes at Brooklyn College with György Kepes, who had worked with László Moholy-Nagy and brought Bauhaus and Constructivist ideas about image, montage and type into the room. In 1946 Bass moved to Los Angeles to work as an art director.
Otto Preminger first used Bass for the advertising of The Moon Is Blue (1953). For Carmen Jones (1954) Bass designed the poster, a rose inside a flame, and Preminger then asked him to make the opening titles too. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) was the breakthrough: a black, disjointed arm stood for heroin addiction, and the same image ran from the poster to the animated titles. Cinemas asked for posters showing Frank Sinatra; Preminger refused. The Denver Art Museum, which holds the poster, calls it part of “the first visual identity program ever created for a motion picture”.
IV · The works
Read the credits like a title sequence.
Title, year, director, then who designed the poster: each poster Printed Originals holds or has sold, credited as the opening of a film would credit it.
1957 Saint Joan
Directed by Otto Preminger
Poster: Saul Bass · US one-sheet
- A mosaic of coloured squares
- One charred figure in armour
- No star’s face
1958 Vertigo
The only poster he designed for Hitchcock. Read it closely in Act V →
1961 One, Two, Three
Billy Wilder’s comedy, “Designed by Saul Bass” on the poster itself. See what Denmark did with it in Act VI →
Titles. Identities. A film of his own.
- 1958–60Title sequences for Vertigo (with John Whitney), North by Northwest and Psycho. The Psycho lettering came from Tony Palladino’s book jacket.
- 1969–83Corporate identities for the Bell System, United Airlines and AT&T.
- 1969An Oscar for the short film Why Man Creates, with Bass named as producer.
- 1974Phase IV, the only feature film he directed.
More on the titles and identities
Art of the Title lists 49 title sequences under Bass’s name, from Carmen Jones (1954) to the 1990s. Elaine Makatura joined his office in 1955, was directing and producing sequences by Spartacus (1960), and married him in 1961. For Psycho he also storyboarded the shower sequence; the Academy holds copies of the frames. Saul and Elaine designed the end credits of West Side Story (1961), and in the 1990s Martin Scorsese’s titles for Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence and Casino. Watch the sequences at Art of the Title ↗
The Alliance Graphique Internationale dates the identities as the Bell System 1969, United Airlines 1974 and AT&T 1983; other clients included Continental Airlines, Minolta, Warner Communications, Quaker Oats, United Way, Alcoa, Exxon and the Girl Scouts. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical commissioned Why Man Creates (1968), which won the Oscar for Documentary (Short Subject) on 14 April 1969. Printed Originals holds no material from these programmes.
1980 The Shining
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Poster: Saul Bass · US one-sheet
One face, one word, nothing else. Kubrick turned down several earlier versions; those were never printed.
Available · from $837.00 · View this poster →
1995 The 67th Academy Awards
27 March 1995
Poster: Saul Bass
A gold statuette seen through bars of light: the late exception to the flat field. One of the ceremony posters he designed from 1991 to 1996, the year before he died.
Available · from $493.00 · View this poster →V · Vertigo, 1958
Vertigo, 1958
One film, 1958. Two ways to sell it.
The usual way
Vertigo · UK quad, 1958 Designer unrecorded. Available · from $8,429.00 · View this poster →
- Three slogans
- Photographs of both stars
- Every name billed
Bass’s way
Vertigo · US one-sheet, 1958 Design: Saul Bass. Available · from $17,465.00 · View this poster →
- One spiral
- Two falling figures
- No photographs
Everything is falling except the type.
MUBI’s Adrian Curry notes this was the only poster Bass designed for Hitchcock; his other Hitchcock work was title sequences. Full-scale detail views are held until the editorial-reproduction question is answered.
VI · Abroad
Abroad, the design was reset, cut up or replaced.
In Denmark, the balloons got faces.
Bass’s US one-sheet (1961) is all red field and drawn shapes. The Danish release kept his woman, arm and strings, put photographs of the cast inside the balloons and reset everything on pink, white and cyan. The adapter is unrecorded, so we credit it “after Saul Bass”.
Drag the handle, or use the arrow keys, to compare.
United States, 1961 Design: Saul Bass. Available · from $1,208.00 · View this poster →
Denmark After Saul Bass; adapter unrecorded. Available · from $918.00 · View this poster →
In 1996, Vertigo came back.
Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz’s restoration was released with Bass’s 1958 design reset for each country. Shown at true relative size beside the 1958 US one-sheet.
VIII · Collecting
Collect the poster, not just the image.
Bass’s designs are some of the most reproduced in film, including a 2016 book of twenty removable posters sized for a 12 × 16 inch frame. Which release, which country, what size, how shipped: those questions separate an original from a picture of one.
Original or reproduction?
An original release poster was printed for the cinema trade, at that country’s standard size, with that country’s credits and small print. The book’s posters are sized for a 12 × 16 inch frame, far smaller than a 27 × 41 inch US one-sheet. Our authenticity guide explains what we check.
Reading a US one-sheet
Before the mid-1980s a US one-sheet measured about 27 × 41 inches; afterwards about 27 × 40. Until the 1980s most were printed and distributed by the National Screen Service, and the NSS number in the margin starts with the release year: 58/261 on our Vertigo means 1958. An “R” prefix marks a re-release. More in poster sizes and formats.
Folded or rolled?
Our 1958, 1961 and 1980 US one-sheets were folded as issued; our 1995 Academy Awards poster was rolled. “Folded as issued” means the folds are how the poster left the distributor, and the listing describes their condition.
Which country’s version?
They are different posters. The US One, Two, Three is pure Bass; the Danish one reuses his drawing alongside photographs. The Italian and French Vertigo posters of 1996 reset his 1958 design for a new release. Each listing names the country and the year of the release it was printed for.
Linen-backing, condition and framing
Some older posters, including our Vertigo and Saint Joan one-sheets, are mounted on linen; the listing says so and records any restoration. We use six grades, from Mint to Fair/Poor (condition grading). Framing is optional, and every frame we make is conservation framing (framing original posters).