17 July - 10 October 2004
Design Museum
Co-curated with Neil Symington
A retrospective celebrating the achievements of one of the greatest graphic designers of the twentieth century and the master of film title design.
Before Saul Bass, the opening credits of a film were simply a list of names projected onto the curtains in front of the film screen. The curtains were opened only when the film started. With Saul Bass' design for the film 'The Man with the Golden Arm' in 1954, this changed for good. The film reel was sent to film theatres with the note to open the curtain for the opening credits, since director Otto Preminger considered them to be an integral part of his film. Over the course of time, Bass turned the opening credits into an art form.
The exhibition featured the memorable title sequences created for film directors Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese and, through original sketches and storyboards, deconstructed the process of creating a film title sequence.
