Cartoon Modern vs Saul Bass Title Design

カートゥーン・モダン / ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン

Cartoon Modern comes from Animation Techniques and Saul Bass Title Design from Broadcast Design. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Cartoon Modern

Cartoon Modern — UPA『Hell-Bent for Election』1944 フィルム断片 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainCartoon Modern — UPA《Gerald McBoing-Boing》のタイトルカード 1950 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainCartoon Modern — 『Destination Earth』タイトルカード 1956（カール・アーバノ監督） — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

UPA's animators dropped Disney-style dimensional realism for flat color fields, simplified lines and stylized movement, bringing mid-century graphic sensibility into animation.

Saul Bass Title Design

Saul Bass Title Design — ソール・バス『スパルタカス』タイトルロゴ 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Saul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『或る殺人』の図像 1959 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSaul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『栄光への脱出』のポスター 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Moves flat cut paper shapes and hand drawn capitals along simple straight paths in time with the music, stating the theme before the film begins.

Cartoon ModernSaul Bass Title Design
Era1943–19591955 to 1990s
FamilyAnimation TechniquesBroadcast Design
KindStyleStyle
CuesFlat color fields / Omitted outlines / Figures as shapes / Abstract backgroundsFlat cut paper silhouettes / A palette held to a few colors / Uneven hand drawn capitals / Simple moves along straight lines
Best used forChildren's educational programs and picture books drawn friendly with fewer lines · Explainer animation for a company that should feel light rather than realisticHanding over a work's theme and temperature before the story starts · Redesigning the obligation of credits as a piece in its own right
TypeHand lettering, uneven, sitting on the same plane as the colorOne face only, entrances and exits designed to the musical beat
CompositionBackgrounds reduced to color fields, figures placed as shapesHand the names to the moving shapes, fix one reading position
MaterialGrainy paper tooth under flat muted colors that never blendArt built apart from the feature, few colors, one repeated motif
CautionCopying the flat look while keeping smooth Disney movement, so the drawing style and the motion style contradict each other.Decoration unrelated to the feature is not the form, since only the structure that summarizes the theme survives, and when moving the names becomes the point there is no time to read them.

Put these two together

Animation Techniques ／ Broadcast Design

IndexStyle