The Lesser Spotted Bass

There's no point me spouting on about the genius of Bass. We all know it. Even if you only know a few posters or title sequences, if you're a graphic designer of at least "a certain age", you know how important Saul Bass is. If you're lucking, some time in 2004 you were at the Design Museum for the exhibition. Jonathan Jones, writing for the Guardian, slagged it off a bit at the time. I thought it was amazing. Perhaps Jones had a point but I didn't care - it was a ton of Saul Bass, on show, together. Wow.

I vaguely remember there was some promise of a book after the show. I think (and I could be getting mixed up here) you could even pre-order it on Amazon. But it didn't happen. Perhaps somewhere out there, there's a proper explanation of what happened.

Of course, fast-forward seven years and here it is. A mightly volume. And even if it doesn't read well (I've yet to test that) it's a ton of Saul Bass, on show, together. Wow.

As I've just hinted, I haven't had time to explore the book in any detail but one thought did occur: if you remove all the stuff we all know, take out all the film stuff, what's left is still pretty amazing. So rather than dwell on the posters and titles you may already know, here's some quieter things I at least had never seen before.

It's a hefty book but with a relatively modest price tag so I'd say it's more than worth buying. It's an essential chunk of graphic design history and it's beautiful.

Comments

[paula erre]

Wow!!!!
I want that book!
How can I get it?
Many many many thanks for this post.

[Richard]

Paula,

Got mine through Amazon. Should be easy enough to find. Good luck.