Saul Bass was born in the Bronx district of New York City in the year 1920. Bass studied at the New York and Brooklyn College, and later had many apprenticeships with various Manhattan design firms. He did some freelance work mostly in commercial graphic design in New York, before moving to Los Angeles in 1946. He opened his own studio there still doing a majority of his work in the advertising business.

Bass was a very accomplished commercial graphic designer, creating many famous company logos you have probably seen today. One of these such designs is pictured above, the famous AT&T logo. A couple other examples are the corporate identities for United Airlines and the Bell Telephone System.

His commercial work is very well known, but the largest impact on the graphic design industry was probably due to his work in filmmaking. Before him opening credits weren’t even shown in most theaters. He would take a movie and design the title and credits to relate to what the movie was about. One of his most famous was for the movie The Man With the Golden Arm. He designed an arm with heroin track marks to relate to the main characters struggle with drug addiction.

Bass continued with work on other famous motion pictures like Psycho and Vertigo. After having great success in all these endeavors he decided to have a try in directing his own feature film entitled Phase IV. However, this film turned out to be a complete flop and Bass returned to what he did best, commercial graphic design.

Enchanted Beach with Three Fluid Graces

One of my favorite artists is the Surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. His work isn't straight forward, it makes you think about what the message is he is trying to portray. Two different people could look at the same work of art and have completely different views on what it's about. Enchanted Beach with Three Fluid Graces is one such work that makes you wonder what the true meaning is behind the piece.

The color scheme is more natural with a hint of warm shades, like yellows and oranges. These set the tone of a very warm area, like a desert. There are three women standing with sheer, white dresses on. Proceeding from right to left the women begin to blend more with the background, like the head of the far right one seems to be where the large hole in the rock is. The one on the left's midsection has actually completely been unraveled, as if it was a garment in itself.

The message I get from this work is that these women appear to be strong and brave enough to stand up to almost anything. Yet, they do appear to have one weakness, in this case the heat. The strong heat seems to be unraveling them. This could pose the idea that everyone, no matter how strong they initially appear, has a weakness of some sort. We all have something that could "unravel" us in some way.

Memorable Image

Some of the most memorable times of my life are also some of the saddest. It's easier for me to remember images that shocked me. Ones that just seemed unbelievable at the time. One of those such times deals with the death of my younger cousin, Olivia. She was only 6 months old at the time of her death. You just don't think that as quick as someone can come into this world, that's how fast they're already gone. I didn't get a chance to know my cousin, but her memory will always live on inside of me.

The one image that really sticks in my head was when we attended the wake. It was open casket(which always freaks me out anyway), and it was my turn to go up and pay my last respects. I just remember looking down at her and thinking, she looks just like one of those porcelain dolls. They had dressed her in this pink, lace dress with matching hat and shoes. Her fingernails were painted pink to match the dress, and she was wearing way too much makeup for a little girl of her age. That image will never leave me as long as I live. Just the thought that someone so little can be taken away, without even getting their chance to live, is to this day still too difficult for me to accept.