Saul Bass Poster

Why Saul Bass?

         In my graphic design class, a while ago we were asked to choose from a list of graphic designers and movements to research and create a power point about. From the list, I chose the designer, Saul Bass. His art was unique and different from what you would normally see and that really caught my eye. The way that he made his art his own was inspiring. His graphics are easy to recognize and are always interesting to look at. This week, we were asked to create poster in the style of our artist or movement, promoting their work at the Nelson Art Museum. One of his works that really caught my eye, was his posters and covers for the film The Man with the Golden Arm. In his arts for the film, there is this arm that is almost like a signature for the film and Saul Bass. Every time I hear Saul Bass, I think of that arm so I decided to put that in my poster.

Research

          To make sure that my poster looked the best that it possibly could, I had to research what the importance of a poster is and what makes a good poster. The main idea of a poster is to get inform others about a certain event in the simplest form possible. You want all of the necessary information on the poster without making the poster look too busy. I researched some of Saul's posters and also tired to make it look like something that he would create. I looked at multiple fonts and found the perfect font to represent Saul's style (Viktors Littl Creepy Horror). I found Saul Bass's works usually used dark colors to portray a cynical feel. I tried to create the same kind of feel by using the colors that he used (dark, warm colors). 

20 Layout Sketches

          In addition to the research, we had to create 20 different sketches of ideas for our poster. I knew that I want "Saul Bass" to be the first thing people saw when they glanced at my poster. I made different sketches of how I could portray Saul Bass through this poster. I had to think about where every piece of information would go and how large I wanted the details to be. I then started to add certain graphics and fonts that I thought would represent Saul. I settled on one of the first sketches that I drew. Going into this project, I already had an mage in my mind of what I wanted my poster to look like, it was just a matter of where to put everything and how to make certain information to pop.

The Process in Illustrator 

          When creating this in Illustrator, I knew that I wanted "The Arm" to look as if it were placing "Saul" onto the poster. I made sure to use the same colors that Saul used. The most difficult part of all of this was trying to get all of the information on the poster without making it overwhelming. I think that with a little outlining I successfully got all of the information that I needed on the poster. I tried to outline the whole poster with harsh, jagged lines because I have seen some of Saul's works outlined in that sort of way. It was challenging to try and create this in Saul's style while trying to make it my own.

Conclusion

          Overall, I enjoyed creating this poster. There were few challenges and going into this project, I already knew what I wanted it to look like, which made it easier to create. I feel like I did a good job at portraying Saul Bass in the poster. If I could change anything, I would probably try to find a more readable font. Other than that, I like my poster.