Renowned
Graphic Designer,
Title designer, Director, Animator
Directors from Alfred Hitchcock to Martin Scorsese
have turned to this brilliant graphic designer to fashion
main titles which will set the mood for their films. He
first worked with Otto Preminger on Carmen Jones (1954),
but it was his design concept for The Man With the Golden
Arm (1955) that really caught people's attention. Thereafter,
he created posters and logos forall of Preminger's films,
among them Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Anatomy of a Murder
(1959), Exodus (1960), and Advise and Consent (1962).
He also brought his design expertise and sense of humor
to the main titles of Around the World in 80 Days (1956).
After making an arresting title sequence for Hitchcock's
Vertigo (1958), the director hired him to not only make
titles, but also act as visual consultant on North by
Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). For the latter film,
Bass actually laid out a blueprint for the bravura shower
murder sequence.
He later designed the elaborate epilogue title sequence
for West Side Story (1961), filmed an eerie cat "walking
the line" for Walk on the Wild Side (1962), and conceived
the racing sequences for Grand Prix (1966). In the mid
1960s, Bass grew tired of being an appendage to other
people's films, and started making his own very personal
short subjects The Searching Eye, The Solar Film, Notes
on the Popular Arts several of which were nominated for
Academy Awards; Why Man Creates (1968) in fact won an
Oscar as Best Live-Action Short Subject. In 1974 he made
his feature-film directing debut with the science fiction
story Phase IV, but the picture was not a success. After
filming an elaborate and amusing title sequence for That's
Entertainment, Part 2 (1976), he returned to the world
of graphic design, where he created logos for corporations
and products ranging from United Air Lines to Lawry's
seasonings. After a long hiatus from film titles, he started
accepting assignments again in the 1980s, working with
his wife Elaine. They started simply, with designs for
films like Broadcast News (1987) and Martin Scorsese's
GoodFellas (1990), before diving into more ambitious and
elaborate work. Their moody design for Scorsese's Cape
Fear (1991) was topped by their brilliant evocation of
The Age of Innocence (1993). Like all great Bass titles,
this one set the stage for the film that followed and
offered moviegoers a miniature film within a film.
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia
Ivan Chermayeff
Cofounder Chermayeff & Geismar
Inc. Born: London, England
Education:
Harvard University, the Institute of Design in Chicago,
and Yale University School of Art and Architecture Founded:
With Tom Geismar, Chermayeff & Geismar Inc.
Mr. Chermayeff is a past president of the American Institute
of Graphic Arts, and was a trustee for the Museum of Modern
Art for 20 years. He is chairman of the Design Initiatives
and Educational Policy Committee of the Parsons School
of Design and a trustee of the New School for Social Research,
as well as a national trustee of the Smithsonian Institution.
He also has been on the Board of Directors of the International
Design Conference in Aspen for over 26 years.
His work has been exhibited widely throughout the United
States, Europe, Japan and the Soviet Union. His many awards
include the Industrial Art Medal from the American Institute
of Architects, the Gold Metal from the Philadelphia College
of Art, and, with Thomas Geismar, the Gold Medal of the
American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Yale Arts Award
Medal. He was named to the New York Art Directors Hall
of Fame, and has received l honorary doctorates from the
Corcoran Museum of Art, the University of Arts and from
the Maine School of Arts.
Seymour Chwast
Renowned Graphic Designer
and Illustrator
Seymour Chwast, Renowned Graphic Designer
and Illustrator
Seymour Chwast, cofounder and director of Pushpin Studios,
is a renowned graphic designer and illustrator. Extraordinarily
versatile, he designs books, packaging, posters and illustrates
for publications advertising and corporations. In addition
to his unique and innovative style, Seymour often contributes
an absurdist sense of wit to his work
A Cooper Union graduate, Seymour is in the Art Directors
Hall of Fame and is a member of the Alliance Graphique
Internationale. His work has been exhibited in major galleries
and museums internationally including the Louvre and the
Museum of Modern Art. His work is in the collection of
the National Design Museum.
April Greiman
Partner Pentagram
April Greiman was born in New York
andstudied graphic design at the Kansas City Art Institute
and the Allgemeine Kunst Gewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland.
She opened her practice in Los Angeles in 1976 and joined
Pentagram as a partner in 2000.
An early and enthusiastic adapter of computertechnology,
she established her reputationas a new media pioneer with
now-legendary projects for Esprit, the WalkerArt Center
and the Southern California Institute of Architecture
(Sci-Arc) that were notable for their experimental mergers
of type and image. Her work has since extende into the
third dimension, including collaborations with Architects,
ranging from signage and exhibitions to the development
of color palettes, finishes, and textile design. At the
same time, April's commitment to new media has led to
a wide range of projects including broadcast television
design for PacTel, an interactive website for US West,
and "Upside Down, Inside Out, and Backwards," an interactive
project for children.
Perhaps April's most widely reproduced design was her
commemora-tive stamp for the 19th Amendment, commissioned
by the US Postal Service in 1995, with over 150 million
impressions.
April Greiman is one of the most honored designers in
the world, having received the Medal of the American Institute
of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Chrysler Award for Innovation,
both in 1998. She has taught at Sci-Arc, California Institute
of the Arts, and Art Center College of Design. She is
a past president of the Los Angeles chapter of the AIGA
and a current member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.
Most recently, in 2000 April was named an Apple Master,
experimenting with new technology and exploring new applications
for digital technology.
