ALUMINUM— THE ARCHITECT’S METAL
[Saul Bass: Designer]
[Saul Bass: Designer]: ALUMINUM— THE ARCHITECT’S METAL. Pittsburgh, PA: Aluminum Company of America, 1963. Original edition. Slim square quarto. Glossy stapled wrappers. Vellum dust jacket. 36 pp. Fully illustrated in color with elaborate graphic design throughout. Architects’ dated “Received Stamp” to first page [see scan]. Fragile vellum jacket lightly worn along lower edge, otherwise a fine, fresh copy.
8.25 x 8.75 elaborate stapled booklet with 36 pages devoted to the Architect’s newest and bestest friend: aluminum. With illustrated testimonials from Walter Gropius, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei and Phillip Will, Jr. Vellum dust jacket features a stylized artists’ rendering of Century City, the soon-to-be-developed 88-building complex in Los Angeles. Uncredited, period correct graphic design by Saul Bass, with the 1963 Bass-designed Alcoa Logo prominently displayed throughout.
The Aluminum Company of America celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1963 with a new logotype designed by Saul Bass. The Bass logo replaced the balanced triangles developed by Harley Earl Associates in the mid-fifties. His mark was made up of triangles that formed a stylized letter A. The old mark was embedded inside it. He also created an entire typeface base on the logo-type. This program would also see a more stringent branding policy where the mark would only be used on Alcoa products and the full name was dropped. The new symbol was unveiled in January 1963, although internal communication started in late 1962. The logo was given a slight retouch in 1999 as part of a new corporate identity program, created by Arnold Saks in New York.
“In the mid-1950s the Aluminum Company of America, ALCOA, organized an extensive Forecast Program to promote the use of aluminum in design and architecture. For this venture ALCOA focused on the designer as ‘the man to stimulate the consuming public with inventive projects for the home’, and invited a range of designers including Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Girard, Charles and Ray Eames and many others to participate. What Alcoa wanted from the designers was not a product to manufacture, but a concept to promote.” —Vitra Design Museum
Saul Bass (Amican, 1920 – 1996) enjoyed a storied career as a graphic designer, whose corporate identity work for companies such as AT&T, Bell Telephone, Esso, and United Airlines provided them with some of the most memorable brand recognition of the 20th century. His film titling work and poster design for Hollywood's greatest studios and directors, however, earned Bass a unique place in American graphic arts.
Born in The Bronx, Bass's passion for drawing and illustration appeared early in life, and he studied at both the famous Art Students League and at Brooklyn College where he came under the influence of Gyorgy Kepes and the full sweep of Russian Constructivist typography and Bauhaus design theory. Though he found some opportunities in New York as a freelance graphic artist, his greatest success came after moving to Los Angeles in 1946. His major breakthrough came by way of a commission from the film director Otto Preminger who asked him to design the titling sequences for "Carmen Jones." Bass transformed an otherwise tedious but necessary preamble to the movie into an exciting, anticipatory experience for theatre viewers.
More commissions from other directors soon followed, including Billy Wilder (The Seven Year Itch) and Robert Aldrich (The Big Knife). Then came the film that firmly established his reputation, Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, with its still dazzling sequences and memorable cutout image of the addict's arm. Other famous films bearing Bass's edgy and graphically arresting touch included Hitchcock's Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho; Kubrick's Spartacus and The Shining; Scorsese's Goodfellas and Casino; and Speilberg's Schindler's List. Though Bass claimed to have directed Janet Leigh's shower scene sequence in Psycho, most sources credit him only with helping to prepare the storyboards.
Bass also directed the science fiction/horror film, Phase IV, and designed posters for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and for the Academy Awards celebrations from 1991-1996. His most memorable quote was "Symbolize and summarize."