Saul Bass, originally uploaded by Xavier Encinas
Saul Bass, 1977 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame entry:
From the very beginning of his career, painting signs on store windows in the Bronx while attending high school, Bass learned respect for craft and process. “The failure to deal with these issues is one of the irritating weaknesses of today’s educational system.”
Largely self-taught, he is careful to give credit to those influences who opened conceptual doors: Howard Trafton at the Art Students League and particularly Gyorgy Kepes at Brooklyn College. (Kepes returned the compliment by including a chapter on Bass in his comprehensive six-volume Vision and Value .)
If you had designed everything behind Mr. Bass, and were able to pull off both a mustache and the mock turtleneck, you too could graduate to the nickname of Bad Ass Motherfucker (wallet included).