Bass was a change maker of his time.
Being credited for artists' work at this time was not customary until Bass'
poster designs. By signing his work he made it possible for designer to have
rightful claims to their work. His poster work which featured in films created
a cinematic experience to even the most boring parts of the film, offering a
visual feast. As a typographic designer he was commissioned to create visual
identity for films. An example of this practice is his design for 'The Man With
The Golden Arm', "for which Bass created the famous jagged arm design,
suggesting the jarring and disjointed existence of a drug addict. With this
design, Bass exploited what he termed the significance of content in design."
His contribution to typographic practice at the time used animation to create
sequences that moved which then became classic. His legacy is evident in many
contemporary works today.
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| Saul Bass 'The Man with the Golden Arm' |
Steve Jobs who was captivated by the
ancient art of arranging letter on a page used digital means to express his
interest in a modern society. Contrastingly to Bass, Steve Jobs a contemporary
post digital designer dropped out of university and because he didn't have to
take normal classes decided to learn calligraphy. It was in this class that he
learnt about "the serif and sans serif typefaces and about varying the
letter spacing between different letter combinations." Steve Jobs' role as
well as the director of the Apple computer was the typography of Apple. In
contract to Bass who designed visual identity for the film and culture of the
day, Jobs used digital sources to create a visual identity for one of the most
popular electronic sources today. In the example clip below Jobs mixes various typefaces and
expresses his message digitally as kinetic typography in contrast to Bass' still animation. "Prior to the Apple Mac, computer type
was crude and utilitarian. But Jobs equipped the Mac with Postscript font
technology and that, married with the personal laser printer, made high quality
screen and print typography accessible to the masses."
Click on the link above to watch video
Steve Jobs 'Kinetic Typography'
Sources
Lecture - Typographic Context
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