Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Historical and Contemporary studies Essay
Saul Bass was born on May 8th, 1920, in New York City, and died on April 25th, 1996 in Los Angeles, California. He was one of the great designers of the 20th century and also a master of film title design. During his 40-year career he has collaborated with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and Otto Preminger, who are considered Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers. Amongst his most famous title sequences is the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), knowing that the arm was a powerful image of addiction, Bass had decided to choose it, rather than the famous face of Frank Sinatra, as the symbol of both the movie titles and the promotional posters. The cut-out arm caused a sensation and Saul Bass reinvented the movie title as an art form. By the end of his life he had created over 50 title sequence designs for Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock and many more film directors. He later decided that he found the Man with the Golden Arm sequence “a little disappointing now, because it was so imitated”.
The design shows that Bass is not afraid to show the cut-out jagged edges, despite the birth of postmodernism which brought the onset of computers and digital art. In my opinion this was intentional as it brought the image a more powerful impact to the audience and almost a shock factor, and with the Frank Sinatra image not being the main focus, it also added to the popularity of the image whereas many would of believed that, in theory, that decision would have had the opposite effect. Bass’ sequence design for Preminger not only influenced other designers to try out his style but Preminger himself very much liked the feel of Bass’ design and that resulted in every succeeding Preminger film carrying Bass's distinctive design mark, as shown here: Bonjour Tristesse, Advise & Consent, Bunny Lake Is Missing, Exodus, The Human Factor, In Harm's Way, Saint Joan, Such Good Friends and perhaps his most famous, the dissected body graphic for Anatomy of Murder.
Here is the title sequence design for The Anatomy of Murder (1959). You can see how bass has replicated the style of The Man with the Golden Arm, using the cut-out effect and the black abstract like image.
Director Spike Lee would later replicate the Bass-designed poster art for his 1995 film ‘Clockers’, for which Bass threatened to sue.
You can see the parady in Spike Lee’s design for Clockers. How he has imitated the black body cut-out and the block rectangular shapes in the background with the two colour pallette. All can be seen in the image for Bass’ The Anatomy of Murder.
The purpose of a movie’s main title sequence is to deliver necessary credit information while stylistically summarizing the film. A good film’s title sequence should be a metaphorical configuration of the film itself. In this respect, and no main title designer has been as influential on the industry as Saul Bass. The influence of graphic designer Saul Bass (1920-1996) on pop culture can be seen virtually everywhere today. During his 40-plus year career he’s designed corporate logos for AT&T (and it’s forerunner Bell), Continental Airlines, Exxon, Girl Scouts, Kleenex, Lawrys, Minolta, Quaker, Rockwell, United Way, and United Airlines to name a few.
Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and then the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives. It is used in critical theory to refer to work of literature, drama, architecture, cinema, journalism and design, as well as in marketing and business in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Postmodernism is an aesthetic and political philosophy, which was the attempt to describe a condition. Especially since the 1920s' new movements in the arts, while post modernity focuses on social and political aspects and innovations globally, especially since the 1960s in the West. The English Dictionary refers to postmodernism as "a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions."
Postmodernism in graphic design for the most part has been a visual and decorative movement. Many designers and design critics argue that postmodernism, never really impacted graphic design as it did with other areas of art. Postmodernism never really stuck to graphic design as it did with architecture. Some argue that the "movement" (if there ever was one) had little to no impact on graphic design. It could be argued that graphic design practice and designs may be the root of Postmodernism. Graphic design started to get popular towards the end of the seventies in the form of Graffiti and Hip Hop culture's rise. Expressing yourself in a graphic form became a hobby amongst school kids and people alike.
The Man with the Golden Arm" gained instant notoriety: rather than a glossy photo of Frank Sinatra, the ads prominently displayed a woodblock-like arm that represented heroin use. This graphic symbolization of themes (for example, the directional arrows coming off the words "North" and "Northwest"), along with the use of jagged typefaces, basic colors, and a disturbingly off-kilter graphic style were instantly distinguishable from the conventional, realistic images of the period. Bass himself credits the "mood and feeling" of the images, over the mere use of graphics, for the success of this style. With all this said, Bass’ design relates to postmodernism in the sense that it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and doesn’t rely on graphics but the “mood and feeling” the images give the audience. Bass has made a breakthrough by making a normal poster design into a work of art basically, and graphic designers ever since have been following in the footsteps of the style he brought to the world from 1950 onwards.
Bibliography
- No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Pg 10,18,38
- Wikipedia.org/ manifestationsofpostmodernism
- Designmuseum.org/design
- imdb.com/name/nm0000866/
- SaulBass.com
- wellmedicated.com/showcase/saul-bass-jack-of-all-trades
Images
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Thursday, 15 October 2009
This is the logo for Toblerone, which i used in my Pecha Kucha presentation. Toblerone originated from a town in Switzerland, the name of the town translated to 'the land of bears' and if you look closely at the image you can see an image of a bear cleverly placed into the mountain. nice and clever little design.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Monday, 12 October 2009
How Nigel Foster became Nigel Foster
For the Who Is It brief, we were given an image of a man and had to create a life for them using only what we see and our imaginations. What they are called, what they have done etc...I was paired up with Mike Ngotu and we combined our stories to create a final one. The poster below is how we visualised the story.
Essay C for the 'Who Is It' brief
Nigel Foster was born into a large wealthy family who owned a business named MK ltd., which specialised in lending money and helping with loan repayments. He had a very strict disciplined childhood, which he strongly disliked and always longed for more freedom. He was a quiet boy who most of the time liked to be alone. Sometimes he would sneakily pack his school bag with his toothbrush, a torch, his action man toys and his sleeping bag with his favourite peanut butter sandwiches, and skip school to go and sit beside a lake 2 miles from his house, just listening to the ambience and peacefulness.
In 1967, when Nigel’s father died, he took full ownership of the business and married to his wife Jess Foster, and had two children, Rose and Sarah Foster. Struggling with running the business and the stress of having a family to look after, Nigel slowly started to become attached to alcohol, he would come home from work late, drunk and then polish off eight to twelve Jack Daniels a night. His wife and kids were ashamed to see there once respectable father and husband crumble, and eventually left him four years into their marriage.
Nigel was devastated and began to drink more and more as the days went past, he knew what he was becoming and what he had lost but could not get himself out of the dark abyss he was currently in. Six months had passed and the business was steadily declining into recession, Nigel decided to sell and did so. He received $1,550,995 for the business and had started rehab for his alcohol disorder. He moved to New York and bought a high-class eight-bedroom house on the outskirts of Manhattan. Things were looking good, but he was lonely and had nothing he was passionate about. With no job and nothing to do to occupy his time except smoke cigars and lounge around his house all day, he decided to take up gambling. Roulette, Blackjack, Poker, and Baccarat you name it he played it. It began to get more and more serious, betting ridiculous amounts of money thinking it will never end, all he could think of is that his life was one big addiction.
One morning he decided to mortgage his house and put the money on a 50/50 chance on the roulette. A local television company was aware of what he was doing and decided to get people to vote for which colour he was going to put his money on, in the end the votes were 65% in reds favour and he went with the publics decision. He walked out with over $1.2 million dollars, which he decided to give to charity, everyone knew his name.
He apparently packed his bags with a toothbrush and a sleeping bag. He felt that it brought his childhood memory back where he had no worries and was free basically.
He was last seen buying peanut butter on CCTV, June 28 1984, at 07:47 PM.
Nigel was missing for over 20 years, no one knew where he was, what he did and if he was even alive. In 2004 he was seen applying for the New York police department, where he was surprisingly accepted, as they believed he had the intelligence and determination to become a successful officer.
In 1967, when Nigel’s father died, he took full ownership of the business and married to his wife Jess Foster, and had two children, Rose and Sarah Foster. Struggling with running the business and the stress of having a family to look after, Nigel slowly started to become attached to alcohol, he would come home from work late, drunk and then polish off eight to twelve Jack Daniels a night. His wife and kids were ashamed to see there once respectable father and husband crumble, and eventually left him four years into their marriage.
Nigel was devastated and began to drink more and more as the days went past, he knew what he was becoming and what he had lost but could not get himself out of the dark abyss he was currently in. Six months had passed and the business was steadily declining into recession, Nigel decided to sell and did so. He received $1,550,995 for the business and had started rehab for his alcohol disorder. He moved to New York and bought a high-class eight-bedroom house on the outskirts of Manhattan. Things were looking good, but he was lonely and had nothing he was passionate about. With no job and nothing to do to occupy his time except smoke cigars and lounge around his house all day, he decided to take up gambling. Roulette, Blackjack, Poker, and Baccarat you name it he played it. It began to get more and more serious, betting ridiculous amounts of money thinking it will never end, all he could think of is that his life was one big addiction.
One morning he decided to mortgage his house and put the money on a 50/50 chance on the roulette. A local television company was aware of what he was doing and decided to get people to vote for which colour he was going to put his money on, in the end the votes were 65% in reds favour and he went with the publics decision. He walked out with over $1.2 million dollars, which he decided to give to charity, everyone knew his name.
He apparently packed his bags with a toothbrush and a sleeping bag. He felt that it brought his childhood memory back where he had no worries and was free basically.
He was last seen buying peanut butter on CCTV, June 28 1984, at 07:47 PM.
Nigel was missing for over 20 years, no one knew where he was, what he did and if he was even alive. In 2004 he was seen applying for the New York police department, where he was surprisingly accepted, as they believed he had the intelligence and determination to become a successful officer.
'Who Is it' brief essay A
Nigel Ryan McKenna was born in a city named flint in the U.S state of Michigan in 1952. He was born into a large wealthy family who owned a business named MK ltd., which specialised in lending money and helping with loan repayments. He had a very strict disciplined childhood, which he strongly disliked and always longed for more freedom. He was a quiet boy who most of the time liked to be alone. Sometimes he would sneakily pack his school bag with his toothbrush, a torch, his action man toys and his sleeping bag with his favourite peanut butter sandwiches, and skip school to go and sit beside a lake 2 miles from his house, just listening to the ambience and peacefulness. Every year through school Nigel achieved the record high score for most of the tests he sat, even though his attendance was way below par. The teachers believed he would go on to do great things, and before he knew it he was leaving school and heading into the real world. In 1967, when Nigel’s father died, he took full ownership of the business and married to his wife Jess McKenna, and had two children, Rose and Sarah McKenna. Struggling with running the business and the stress of having a family to look after, Nigel slowly started to become attached to alcohol, he would come home from work late, drunk and then polish off eight to twelve Jack Daniels a night. His wife and kids were ashamed to see there once respectable father and husband crumble, and eventually left him four years into their marriage. Nigel was devastated and began to drink more and more as the days went past, he knew what he was becoming and what he had lost but could not get himself out of the dark abyss he was currently in. six months had passed and the business was steadily declining into recession, Nigel decided to sell and did so. He received $1,550,995 for the business and had started rehab for his alcohol disorder. He moved to New York and bought a high-class eight-bedroom house on the outskirts of Manhattan. Things were looking good, but he was lonely and nothing he was passionate about. With no job and nothing to do to occupy his time except smoke cigars and lounge around his house all day, he decided to take up gambling. Roulette, blackjack, poker, and baccarat you name it he played it. It began to get more and more serious, betting ridiculous amounts of money thinking it will never end, all he could think of is that his life was one big addiction. One morning he decided to mortgage his house and put the money on a 50/50 chance on the roulette. A local television company was aware of what he was doing and decided to get people to vote for which colour he was going to put his money on, in the end the votes were 65% in reds favour and he went with the publics decision. He walked out with over $1.2 million dollars, which he decided to give to charity. He packed his bags with a toothbrush and a sleeping bag and lay under a bus stop on the streets of New York. He felt that it brought his childhood memory back where he had no worries and was free basically. Nigel was homeless for over two and a half years, and in 1976 he applied for the New York police department, where he was surprisingly accepted, as they believed he had the intelligence and determination to become a successful officer. This was a turning point in his life and Nigel married again in 1984 and began a new life with a new family. Sadly in 2004 Nigel was diagnosed with lung cancer and died at the age of 52 and was described by his wife and family as a special man who was mostly in the wrong place at the wrong time and who was loved by all.
This is the delicious 100% chocolate 'Malteser Munch' created by myself and my good friend Craig Evans (who has toe nails bigger than my toes) we put blood sweat and tears into the making of this but unfortunately it didnt make the top three in our class. Which in my opinion is an injustice. Just look at it. Its a work of art.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Thursday, 1 October 2009
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