Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker, perhaps best known for his design of film posters and motion picture title sequences.

During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Saul Bass designed emblematic movie posters that transformed the visuals of film advertising. Before Bass’s seminal poster for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), movie posters were dominated by depictions of key scenes or characters from the film, often both juxtaposed with each other. Bass’s posters, however, typically developed simplified, symbolic designs that visually communicated key essential elements of the film. For example, his poster for a Man with a Golden Arm, with a jagged arm and off-kilter typography, starkly communicates the protagonist's struggle with heroin addition. Bass's iconic Vertigo (1958) poster, with its stylized figures sucked down into the nucleus of a spiral vortex, captures the anxiety and disorientation central to the film.

The Great Wave Of Kanagawa

Hokusai the artist behind the wood block painting, was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.





Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views" both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Waveprint and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, "Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series...". While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left a lasting impact on the art world. It was also The Great Wave print that initially received, and continues to receive, acclaim and popularity in the Western world.

Contemporary Designers

Barnbrook founded his design studio, Barnbrook Design (now Barnbrook), in 1990. His typefaces were originally released through the California innovator Emigre. In 2010, his most famous typeface, “Mason” (originally “Manson”), released by Emigre became one of the first digital acquisitions of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Additionally, his stone carving is on permanent display in the 20th-century gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum.


A monograph of his work, Barnbrook Bible,was simultaneously published. In 2008 he was given an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University for services to typography. During 2009, the exhibition “Collateral Damage” presented a retrospective of Jonathan Barnbrook’s more political design output, and traveled to multiple countries, including France, Slovenia, and Croatia.


He also has stated that he believes “design can change the world when it works in service of the right people and gets an issue on the mainstream political agenda.” In acknowledging this responsibility, Barnbrook has art directed for the anti-corporate magazine Ad busters

Pop Art

Pop Art was born in Britain in the mid 1950s. It was the creation of many artist like Andy Warhol. The first application of the term Pop Art occurred during discussions among artists who called themselves the Independent Group (IG), which was part of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, begun around 1952-53. Pop Art appreciates popular culture, or what we also call “material culture.” It does not critique the consequences of materialism and consumerism; it simply recognizes its presence as a natural fact. This would be recognizable imagery, drawn from popular media and products mainly after the world war as anything new was a craze among people as it was different and new. Usually the pieces of art used very bright colours to one draw the viewer in and two as a form as advertising again to draw the viewer in. Flat imagery influenced by comic books and newspaper photographs were widely used as they were very popular among people and was also something new and the style was something different in art. Images of celebrities or fictional characters in comic books, advertisements and fan magazines were also used for example Marilyn Monroe was used in one of Andy Warhol's pieces of art, as she was seen as what a "women" was.

Edgar Allan Poe

Birth Of Modern Horror

Edgar Allan Poe an american author influenced by classical and gothic tales. He was one of the main influences in modern horror, He created elements of horror within his stories which was influenced by psychological and physical events in his life. He suffered many tragedies throughout his life; death of his mother when he was born which led to him to become an orphan and death of his first wife.
Poe died in 1848, his death was a mystery. Although it was a mystery many speculate it could have been related to alcohol and drugs as he was a heavy user of the two. 


Poe is famous for the The Raven, a narrative poem. First published in January 1845, the poem is often known for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

Edward Hopper

Film Noir, a cinematic term used to describe Hollywood based crime dramas. Dramas that consist of cynical attitudes and sexual motivation. Film Noir started in the 1940's till the 1950's mainly associated with hints of black, greys and whites. Film Noir has German expressionist cinematography. Many Film Noir stories derive from the hard-boiled school of crime and fiction that emerged from the U.S in the depression.

The Nighthawk painting is probably the most famous painting in the art world. Edward Hopper was the pioneer who created this painting. Hoppers paintings where current to the time period, his work became an influentional aspect into the development of film Noir. However this gave way to the film noir era, the detective and his sidekick, the girl and the common location. In this painting we see two detectives, a woman and the diner waiter. There is no real story within the painting, its more of an open for interpretation kind of painting, with the use of light and shadow. I think that the main detective with the woman his had an arguement with this sidekick, but being the higher ranked out of the two the main detective has the attention of the woman and possibly the waiter.

1930's Inspired Poster

This is a poster of the 2 Grand Prix in Monaco. You can see how the image has lines to make it look fast and more streamline. The background is of a stationary image of a mountain, the colours used in the background give more depth to the image of the moving car. Everything within the cars area is shown to be moving at a fast speed because of the lines and colours used. Alot of bright and vibrant colours are used in this poster as the point and reason is to draw the viewer into the poster.