Saul Bass

“The very first pieces of film that I did were really graphic designs translated to film. Graphic designs that moved. That was a very new notion.”

“The average individual lives in a high impact, complex, visual environment.”

“A corporation trademark represents a total program for a company. A good symbol will implement its products. Normally such a symbol will be around for an indefinite future 10, 20, 30 years or more.”

“In 'Cape Fear,' all that water and the reflections and these threatening and submerged images in the water - that signals the awfulness that is to come. We're very good at awfulness. No, really, we do do some sweet titles, too.”

“The ideal trademark is one that is pushed to its utmost limits in terms of abstraction and ambiguity, yet is still readable.”

“My view... was that something could happen during the credits that could help the film, so that the establishing shots aren't carrying the total burden.”

“The key to industrial leadership is technology and design; of the two, technology is quantifiable and design is not. Technological improvements might make your product worth another $20. If you design something beautiful, what is that worth? It's worth whatever people will pay for it.”

“I'm a filmmaker and I intend to continue making films of all kinds, in any manner, shape, or form - short or long.”

“I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don't give a damn whether the client understands that that's worth anything, or that the client thinks it's worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It's worth it to me. It's the way I want to live my life.”

“In TV the main purpose is to have them keep their hands off the dial. In movies, where you have a captive audience, the opening is intrinsic to the film.”

“Hitchcock loved long convoluted shots that contained a lot of tracking and camera moves.”

“In 'Age of Innocence,' the opening flowers, that's a metaphor for the film, the Victorian veneer with the malevolence beneath it. We attempted to show that with flowers that start as sweet and then slowly become malevolent.”

“I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”

“The goal, and the ultimate achievement, is to make people feel as well as think.”

“There's nothing worse that you can do than create an aura about a company that's not substantiated by fact. It's not only ineffective but actually harmful to the company. You can create an image or whatever, but it won't stick.”

“I think that the sun*like rainbow growing out of the hand is open to many alternate positive interpretations. One may say it's the hand of the United Way bringing hope to people. But it helps signal that United Way is vibrant, exciting, colorful, positive and changing.”

“In the course of our daily lives, we're bombarded with a barrage of visual messages, some blatantly aggressive, some subtle. The trick is to find a way to break through without adding to the clutter and the ugliness. We have to be responsible about that.”

“Way back in the beginning, I would say in the 20s, when titles were first being treated for films, there was a lot of crazy stuff going on. Everybody was inventing. There were no conventions. Everything was up for grabs.”

“I work on the assumption that in the crowded mass communication field today you have to get in and get out with your message as quickly and simply as possible. You must communicate the maximum with a single glance.”

“Trademarks are usually metaphors of one kind or another. And are, in a certain sense, thinking made visible.”