Saul Bass Title Design vs Visual Music

ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン / ヴィジュアル・ミュージック

Saul Bass Title Design comes from Broadcast Design and Visual Music from Experimental Film. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

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.

Visual Music

Visual Music — メアリー・ハロック＝グリーンウォルトと色オルガン「Sarabet」 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainVisual Music — リチャード・モンクハウス《EMS Spectre 映像シンセサイザーによる画像》1977年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0Visual Music — ダニエル・スピルス 撮影《映像シンセサイザーの出力》PNW SynthFest 2013年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

Film art that translates musical structure into abstract shape, color and motion. From the color organ through abstract animation to today's audiovisual work, it forms a lineage of listening with the eyes.

Saul Bass Title DesignVisual Music
Era1955 to 1990s1920s–
FamilyBroadcast DesignExperimental Film
KindStyleStyle
CuesFlat cut paper silhouettes / A palette held to a few colors / Uneven hand drawn capitals / Simple moves along straight linesAbstract forms in motion / Chords of color / Counterpoint of sound and shape / No narrative
Best used forHanding over a work's theme and temperature before the story starts · Redesigning the obligation of credits as a piece in its own rightLive performance and installation where the image must lock to the playing · Films that carry a piece of music through to the end without lyrics or story
TypeOne face only, entrances and exits designed to the musical beatUse no lettering, or treat any lettering as one more figure
CompositionHand the names to the moving shapes, fix one reading positionHold the center and build chords from the count and spacing of forms
MaterialArt built apart from the feature, few colors, one repeated motifMap hue to pitch and brightness to dynamics when choosing color
CautionDecoration 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.Wiring shape size straight to volume, which hits the beat and never shows the structure of the piece.

Put these two together

Broadcast Design ／ Experimental Film

IndexStyle