Customer Reviews

Saul Bass

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A timely release about one of the great and influential designers of the last century and clearly Pat Kirkham has made this a scholarly work considering the amount of research involved. The title will most likely become the standard biography of Bass. Having said that I was disappointed to find the book had some editorial flaws in its presentation.

Millions of movie-goers are familiar with the stunning credits Bass created (sixty stills are included in a fold-out dateline in the back pages) from Carmen Jones in 1954 to Casino in 1995 and the book rightly devotes a large number of pages to credits and the marketing of these movie. My first disappointment is that a DVD was not included with the book. OK, I'll accept that this would involve a lot of extra work (and probably copyright fees to make the book even costlier) and it wasn't in the author's remit so the fall back position would be to show the credits in as much detail as possible: frame by frame to give the reader a feel of how Bass created these powerful opening movie statements. Unfortunately many of these credit stills throughout the book are treated more as individual images, in various sizes, rather than shown as a sequence of large thumbnails. Solana and Boneu's Uncredited: Graphic Design & Opening Titles in Movies [With DVD] book has a whole chapter on Bass credits and the pages work well. 'Anatomy of a murder' has thirty-two thumbnails, 'North by northwest' has twenty-four. In this book they get six and five.

Chapter six looks at the corporate work of Saul Bass and he worked for a lot of companies. The book's coverage is hardly comprehensive when this kind of design commission looks into every visual corner of a company. Mostly what is shown are a few samples: Fuller Paints gets five photos and a logo; Rockwell International three and a logo; Minolta two photos, two logos and five still thumbnails. These corporate pages throw up another disappointment I had with the book: presentation. Flick through the pages and it all looks clean and tidy but then start to read a chapter and I was aware of the large amounts of empty page space (working white as designers call it) where, as this is a book about a visual subject, images should be working much harder. These are pretty pages rather than practical pages that reveal the full potential of the images to the reader. A good example are two fold-outs showing sixteen logos to a page, actually they would have fitted easily on two pages but on four pages they should have been much larger without destroying the book's design integrity. A spread on AT&T (pages 330/331) has ten images and text that would easily fit on one page.

What I found absolutely fascinating were the fifteen pages of notes in the back pages. Predictably set in tiny type yet full of detail about Saul Bass, design and the design community he worked in.

The book's printing is excellent, a nice matt art for the 1484 images using an impressively fine screen (three hundred+) an embossed cover with the 'Bonjour tristesse' logo. 'Saul Bass' is certainly an interesting book but I thought the presentation didn't really display this wonderful designer's work to its full potential, especially his stunning movie credits.

###LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

From the iconic cover image to the unique illustrated footnotes, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design is a real design treat. Luxuriously paced to give the reader time to enter and enjoy each beautifully printed image. At 1400+ images this could become tiresome and over-saturated but I found it easy to lose myself in each of Bass's designs. Saul's stories and insights are scattered throughout. His voice and his work are presented in a way that would make him proud.

This book is visually stunning. The text is informative and unpretentious and the collection of Bass' artwork, from film posters to corporate logos, is breathtaking.

The book as a whole provides fascinating insight into the creative process of one of the most influential designers of our time.

from my fiance and this book is a knockout! I love the work of SAUL BASS and am still learning about it! So graphically appealing and this book is HUGE and HEAVY! A real treat to look through. My degree is in ART/ILLUSTRATION and couldn't be happier with this present!

Completely disagree with HH. This book is pure joy- a sumptuous and fascinating look at one of the most important designers and filmmakers of the 20th century, chock-full of bold, beautiful images. If one reads past the first chapter, which is about Mr. Bass' early life and sets the stage for the rest of the book, there is a depth of writing about his creative process, woven throughout with personal stories and anecdotes about the work in his own voice. The gatefolds displaying his film work and extensive corporate identity designs are an added treat. This book is destined to become a classic.

The only book on one of America's great designers. Complete and a gift to all of us that held, and still hold Saul Bass in high esteem. His complete range of work is on display in this BIG, THICK book. Highly recommended!

A must have for designers to have in their collection. It's beautifully designed and I'm so happy we purchased it. Such a great price too. Happy all around. It was delivered on time and packaged well so that it wasn't damaged in any way.

Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design is the first retrospective book on the 20th century's film title master and what an awesome one at that. Just buy this book. It's amazing.

A traditionally laid out, attractive survey of a noteworthy designer. If you like Bass it's a great monograph, if you're unfamiliar with him it's a great primer.

The one and only monograph on the prolific image maker. From revolutionary title sequences to groundbreaking print design to experimental short films, this is the comprehensive source. Beautifully paced and balanced across 1400+ images in 424 pages. Some pages are stark, allowing the work to breathe and the viewer to focus. Some pages show a calculated edit of images, that tell a longer story. From start to finish, this is a beautifully told story.