Saul Bass – pre-digital
Saul Bass was a 20th century graphic designer who
has been recognised for his contribution to the field due to his innovative and
simplistic approach to design. Bass favoured a minimalistic aesthetic and used
type to create interesting and visually striking images. He was a pioneer for
film design to come, as he wanted to transform previously boring opening titles
into sequences that were an integral part of the film. Bass was able to
transform and reinvent the movie title into an art form that was part of the
story telling, engaging the audience right from the start. He is best known for
his work on film title sequences thanks to his work for some of Hollywood’s
most famous filmmakers of the time being Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and
Martin Scorsese. Of all the films we worked on he is most famous for his
sequence of an animated paper cut out of a heroin addicts arm for Preminger’s
‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ year. Bass moved away from the traditional
cluttered imagery and experimented with basic angular shapes and simple primary
colour schemes, which resulted in the creation of geometric designs. This
enabled him to engage the audience and tell stories through the way he arranged
type and shapes to create symbols. Bass also produced poster work, which again
credited him to being an innovator, due to the simple act of signing all of his
work, he bought attention to the idea that designers should have the right to
claim recognition for their work. Saul Bass made a significant contribution to
typographic design and his influence can be seen in many contemporary film
poster and title designs.
David Carson - contemporary
David Carson is often referred to as one of the most
influential and significant graphic designers of our time. He is known for
breaking all of the rules and traditional conventions of design with his highly
intuitive and experimental grunge style. Carson is a manipulator of typography
and will do anything to create new and interesting images with text and
photography to engage the viewer. His work is often confusing which only brings
more attention to it, and brings life to otherwise boring or uninteresting
articles. Carson has influenced designers around him to embrace typography as
an extension of design and has allowed others to see typography as an
expressive medium. Carson is an experimenter with type and he is most renowned
for his work published in surfing and skateboarding magazines such as Ray Gun
and Monster Children. His work stands out and has impacted on design as he is
not afraid to play around and alter type into expressive words that convey
emotion by overlapping or distorting fonts and combing this with beautiful
photographs to create interesting and striking imagery. David Carson is a
significant typographic designer as he has not been afraid to push or challenge
the boundaries of design by experimenting with new ways of creating imagery.
Both Saul Bass and David Carson are innovators of their time
and have made significant contributions to the field of graphic design. Their
fearless approach to design and experimentation with typography to create
images have contributed to their success and ability as designers to engage
their audience by doing the unconventional thing.
References:
David Carson Design, 2012, http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/clients/metropolis/
Design Museum: Saul Bass -
Graphic Designer (1920-1996), 2012, http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass
Nourmand, T. 2000, International Magazine: Saul Bass, http://www.saul-bass.com/
Schepis, M. 2010, Visuakontakt: David Carson – Design, http://www.visualkontakt.com/p/david-carson-design.html
The History of Visual Communication, 2010, http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/modernists.html
No comments:
Post a Comment