Here’s something great that you might enjoy as much as we do. In 1968 Saul Bass, the already legendary designer, created & co-wrote the short experimental film Why Man Creates with screenwriter Mayo Simon. Simon, most well-known for writing Futureworld isn’t the only Hollywood credit on this short – the young George Lucas was enlisted as a 2nd unit director as well.
Why Man Creates (posted recently on Fast Company’s site) is a wonderful snapshot of the extraordinarily playful + intensely serious thinking about Design (with a capital D) and intellectual thought so much a core foundation of Mid-Century American culture. There is no pandering to the audience, there is just fast-moving play & rhetoric mixed into one dense, small chunk of time and space planted quite firmly in a New York / East Coast vibe. We love it!
Bass’ description of the creative process that guided his career:
“Where do ideas come from? From looking at one thing, and seeing another. From fooling around, from playing with possibilities, from speculating, from changing, pushing, pulling, transforming, and if you’re lucky, you come up with something worth saving, using, and building on. That’s where the game stops and the work begins.”
Sounds just about perfectly true. We hope that you enjoy!
(Read more about the truly amazing Saul Bass here on his AIGA Medal induction page and also here on Wikipedia.)
