first edition Hardcover
1993 · Tokyo
by Dorfsman, Louis, and Martin Scorsese (texts)
Tokyo: Ginza Graphic Gallery. Near Fine. 1993. First Edition. Hardcover. (pictorial boards; no dust jacket, as issued, but with paper wrap-around band] [very slightly bumped at top of spine and at lower rear corner, otherwise as-new]. (World Graphic Design, 10) Series (color and B&W art reproductions, photographs) This lovely little book (measuring 5-1/4" x 7-1/2") presents a compact, mostly visual survey of highlights from Saul Bass's long career as a designer of film title sequences, corporate logos, product packaging, and more. Most of the book's 63 pages contain images of Bass designs -- film and corporate logos and posters, mainly, although there are a couple of frame-by-frame sequences from films, notably the shower sequence from Hitchcock's PSYCHO (which Bass was purported, by some, to have substantially directed). There are two single-page introductions, "Saul Bass, a combination of intellect and emotion," by Louis Dorfsman, and "Saul Bass as a designer of Films," by Martin Scorsese (for whom Bass designed title sequences for three films); these texts are presented in both English and Japanese, as is a brief biography of Bass on pp.62-63. Laid in at the front is a notecard addressed to director Arthur Hiller, SIGNED by Bass and with his rubber-stamped self-caricature of his head on the body of a fish (a bass, get it?). The handwritten note on the card reads: "Dear Arthur - / Best wishes for a / wonderful year for you / & yours / Saul." NOTE that I've scanned the book's cover without the wrap-around band. Signed by Biographee . (Inventory #: 29853)