Google’s doodle tribute to graphic designer Saul Bass

Saul Bass, our patron saint of graphic design, would have turned a grand 93 years old today. To mark his birthday, Google has paid a virtual tribute to the enduring legacy of the American graphic designer and filmmaker with an animated Doodle created in his distinctive style.
The Internet powerhouse has taken a Bass motto to task - ‘Symbolise and summarise’ - with a short animated sequence that reimagines Google’s logo in the designers’ unmistakable brand of title credits, set to an upbeat jazz tune composed by David Brubeck.
During his 40-year career, Bass - who died in 1996 - collaborated with many of the industry’s most influential filmmakers: Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorcese, and Otto Preminger, to name a few. He single-handedly revitalised title sequences in his work for Alfred Hitchcock’s films, devising a revolutionary type of kinetic typography that characterised the openings of classics such as 'North by Northwest', 'Vertigo' and 'Psycho'.
Today, Hollywood might be awash with posters emblazoned with garish clichés but Bass' designs still shine brightly as beacons of visual culture. His work resonates far and wide with graphic designers, filmmakers, advertisers... and now, apparently, Google doodlers.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spot
Heritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
Discover midcentury treasures in Marylebone with Álvaro by Appointment
London is full of sequestered design havens, and Wallpaper* knows them all. Allow us to point you in the direction of Álvaro González’s shop window on Nottingham Place, home to a bonanza of beautiful 20th-century antiques
-
Beach chic: the all-new Citroën Ami gets an acid-tinged, open-air Buggy variant
Citroën have brought a dose of polychromatic playfulness to their new generation Ami microcar, the cult all-ages electric quadricycle that channels the spirit of the 2CV for the modern age
-
Google and Chromasonic make sense of colour at Milan Design Week
Google's interactive installation in collaboration with Chromasonic demonstrates how colour influences our perception of the world
-
Google Design Studio celebrates the relationship between water and technology
At Milan Design Week 2023, ‘Google Shaped By Water’ is an immersive and intimate sensorial installation by Lachlan Turczan that puts water, light and human beings in resonance
-
SlowMo eases digital mental health therapy into daily life
SlowMo is a new mental health support app developed by design studio Special Projects and King’s College London that uses visual prompts to combat unhelpful thoughts
-
Google gets physical with first New York store
Google opens its first retail location in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood. We spoke to Ivy Ross, the company’s vice president of hardware design, UX and research, who served as creative director of the store, to find out more about Google's move into physical retail
-
Mark Dalton on helping people navigate a pandemic through design
Design Emergency began as an Instagram Live series during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now becoming a wake-up call to the world, and compelling evidence of the power of design to effect radical and far-reaching change. Co-founders Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn took over the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper* – available to download free here – to present stories of design’s new purpose and promise. Here, Alice Rawsthorn talks to creative director Mark Dalton
-
In memoriam: Wim Crouwel (1928-2019)
-
V&A Museum’s new map navigates seven miles of gallery space
Anyone who has ever found themselves waylaid in the V&A will welcome the addition of a new map, and nearly 400 signs, comprising 60 totems, 130 hanging signs as well as an entirely new signage at gallery thresholds
-
Nendo’s first graphic picture book depicts how design ideas are born