a visual sampler

Saul Bass

The Basics:

Born: 1920 in New York City; died in 1996.
Studied at the Art Student's League in Manhattan and also at Brooklyn College.
Began producing ads and movie posters in Hollywood in the early 1950's; his first movie title sequence was for the 1954 movie Carmen Jones. Director Otto Preminger liked Bass' poster for the movie so much, he asked him to design the opening title sequence as well. This led to Bass creating memorable prints and titles for many films from the 1950's through the mid 1990's.
Perhaps his most famous work is the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm opening; before this film was released, often times movie theaters would not pull the curtain before the movie actually started, due to the lackluster nature of the titles and credits. This one was different. Labeled on the reel cans was "projectionists – pull curtain before titles". Preminger wanted his audience to see The Man with the Golden Arm’s titles as an integral part of the film, and for good reason. Bass chose the arm as the most powerful image of heroin addiction, rather than a poster of Frank Sinatra in the starring role for both the poster and title sequence. What remains is so compelling that it has been imitated thousands of times in other graphic works.
One of the pioneers of the concept of telling a story through the opening and closing credits of a movie.
Bass also designed the infamous title sequences for Alfred Hitchcock's films North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho; and works for other directors Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer and Martin Scorsese.
Designed the Student Academy Award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Creator of numerous iconic corporate logos, some that are still in use.
In 1974, Bass directed his only film, Phase IV.

A quote from Saul Bass:
"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it."

Final Thoughts:
Bass' innovative and revolutionary work will maintain his status as one of the most revered graphic designers in history. Bet you didn't know all this came from one cool guy, huh?

Lanre Lawal

Lanre Lawal is an award-winning graphic designer from Lagos, Nigeria. He is currently the CEO of the graphic & multimedia design company he founded in 2005, The Design Jockey Sessions. In 2001, he started a a graphics/animation company, HomeMadeCookies (HMC) as a co-partner. For the next four years he was projects director at HMC, detailing production in the following fields: 3D Modelling / Animation, Multimedia, Web design, 3D Architectural Visualizations, Branding & Graphic Design. He helped build the company from scratch into one of the most comprehensive media houses in Nigeria today. He received the prestigious International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year from the British Council in it's inaugural year, 2005. Winning this award has fast-forwarded his career, and he has taken on such projects as visual branding for The Office of The Lagos State Government; motion graphics for the logo of GLO mobile, Africa’s largest telecom network; and visual identity for the Lagos Film Office. Lawal has since been inspired to explore tactility and to apply the Design Jockey ethos to product design. As an exciting result of this, a new range of interior products that he designed were exhibited at the British Council stand at 100% Design 2006. Lawal also has worked with graphic novels (comics) and film making.
(From the Creative Economy/British Council website.)

Selected works:

Black Sheep Design

California-based group Black Sheep Design is a marketing agency and creative design firm, specializing in corporate identity, collateral, packaging, trade show design, interactive design, web development, offset printing, and photo direction. Their marketing sector also handles ad campaigns, brand strategy, copywriting, marketing plans, media relations, strategic planning, and survey development. Although their graphics aren't completely my taste (I dig that urban, contemporary vibe), the everyday-ness of their work is nice and somewhat easy to look at. I realize that most of what I comment on for this blog is typically flashy, modern and hip (in my opinion) so here's a little something different. I suppose if I were an owner of a bed-and breakfast I could have these guys work something up for me...I don't care for some of their menus and corporate type distributions that are too visually cluttered. Have a look at some things they've done:

COA design

COA is a "multi-disciplinary" design group in NY concentrating in graphic and website design. Check out some of their work first:

COA designs graphics for books, magazines and various other publications, including the art direction for the New York Times (pictured above). What I particulrly like about their work is the use of photographs and computer graphics combined. They have a knack for combing intriguing photos or graphics with the right font, the right layout, the right everything.

duo creative

Charlotte based group duo creative is a graphic design company with an impressive portfolio. Comprised of two designers, their "two heads are better than one" approach makes potential clients feel as though they are doing business with a small company who will give them the personal attention they desire. I was drawn to their site by a neat little intro, "would you buy just one shoe?" intimating that things are better in pairs. What speaks for itself is their work, and you can see it here (photos cannot be saved from their site). What I like most is their use of color; it's not flamboyant, but subtle and appropriately pretty. In particular, a poster for an annual juried student art exhibition held at Appalachian State University strikes me as getting the color scheme and graphics right on. The handwritten title on the photo's "hand" is a great idea, and is expressed well in the overall layout of the poster.

Eview 360

"Design is our passion; our instrument to communicate the vision of our clients." This is the opening statement of Eview 360's website, and what a great introduction it is. Eview 360 provides brand rich visual communication tools to help organizations engage customers and employees more effectively. Creating designs for companies such as Volvo, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Toyota/Scion, Audi, and Mega Electronics, Eview's client base is as impressive as the products they create. Specializing in packaging, branding, print, exhibition graphics, interiors, and website/interactive design, there is no shortage of elegance in any of the formats they design. Check it out for yourself here (photos not allowed to be saved from site). Designing for the big auto corporations is a massive undertaking; intimidating as it seems to me to take on, someone has to do it, and Eview must be the right choice. I find their approach to print (in particular) to be appealing in its clean lines, sharp photos and concise text.

Doubletake Creative

Based in Lawrenceville, GA, the Doubletake Creative design group does it all: annual reports, identity and logos, branding, collateral, direct mail, posters, trade show graphics, menus, calendars, signage, catalogs, and packaging. As if that wasn't impressive enough, their work is beautiful. Here are a few examples:

The last photo (of the pharmacy logo) is definitely my speed, although the font on the "RX" part is not one I would choose, I don't think it goes well with the retro font on "Crawford". I can't wait to learn how to design the types of things they have such as the transportation brochure (the truck photo above) and construction company publication.

Alan Fletcher

Super graphic designer extraordinaire Alan Fletcher left some mighty big shoes to fill in the world of graphic design, as he set the bar extremely high for himself and others after designing amazing works during the late 1950's until his death in 2006. His logos and branding have become instantly recognizable, and his books and posters are timeless graphic icons. Have a look:

Here is my final iteration of our third assignment, a container for a memory. This was certainly the most challenging concept thus far, and I struggled for a week to come up with an idea while everyone else was on their second or third iteration. I'm pleased with the result, I just need that little internal light bulb to turn on a lot sooner for future projects! (The memory represented is of the first time my newborn son held my finger with his hand.)
Of course there were ideas that didn't work. Like the kaleidoscope (ugh!) and the world in the plastic sphere (worse!). The kaleidoscope was actually fun and relatively simple to make. Using three mirrors angled together to form a triangle is the secret. I kept that part around since my son loved to look through it at various objects. Here's a photo of the memory container rejects: