The Man with the Golden Arm

Today I was looking through the Art Director's Club Hall of Fame list for some inspiration. The list is long and exceptionally distinguished. (I mean, come on—they don't call it the Hall of Fame for nothing!) Name after name, I recognized so many of my favorite designers. I say this knowing it's nearly impossible to pick a "favorite" from this list because the designers are all so amazing. But one of my particular favorites, inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1977, is Saul Bass. His quote, "Design is thinking made visual," has been the cornerstone of my design philosophy for many years. (Not to mention, it's also the title of this blog!) I remember seeing the opening credits to THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM when I was a freshman in design school and being completely blown away. That film was made in 1955 and the design was still just as fresh in 1999 as it was 50 years earlier. So, while reading Saul's bio on the ADC site, I found another quote that I couldn't stop thinking about. He said:

"There is nothing glamorous in what I do. I'm a working man. Perhaps I'm luckier than most in that I receive considerable satisfaction from doing useful work which I, and sometimes others, think is good."

This rings true for me. There aren't many people who can say they love what they do, that they take satisfaction in their work. I realize I probably won't ever receive Hall of Fame recognition, but I know the work I do is good, and honest, and it makes me happy. My challenge isn't to design for fame or money (even though those are very nice!)—it's to design because that's what I love doing and I couldn't live any other way.

Some of Saul's work: