Saul bass was a graphic designer but was best known for his movie title sequences. He did work for many directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick. His most famous title sequence is for Otto Preminger's "The Man with the Golden Arm," which involved the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm. In his later work for Scorsese he moved away from the optical techniques that he had pioneered and moved into computerised titles, from which he produced the title sequence for "Casino."





Poster for the film "The
Man with the Golden arm."











Saul's opening for "West Side Story" is a solid block of color that morphs according to the overture. In other title sequences he employs hand-drawn type and cutout construction paper shapes.

"Bass’ techniques are various and decidedly inconsistent: cutout animation, montage, live action, and type design to name only his more prominent exercises. Secondly, Bass exhibits an exemplary use of color and movement. Often sequences begin with a solid, empty frame of color (as with Exodus’ blue or North by Northwest’s green). His design tactic in this context, although characteristic, possesses subtly and variety." - (Rumsey Taylor.)