Saul Bass is a legend in the world of design. The public knows him best for his movie posters, including the one for "The Man With the Golden Arm."
Here I present one of the earlier examples of this work, “Why Men Create,” a 1968 animated documentary that Bass co-wrote with Mayo Simon. Each of the two parts below is about 12 minutes long,
Part one features an animated speedy trip from cave people to more or less modern times for the first six minutes, then some sketch-like live action sequences with a big dash of the surreal.
Appropriately, it uses a right-brain structure to explore the nature of right-brain thinking. It also features quotes from Edison, Hemingway, and Einstein on various aspects of the creative process.
Part 2 winks at the typical public reactions to anything new, follows a runaway ping pong ball (make up your own metaphor), gets serious for a look at scientific research on world hunger, and ends exploring the overall question of why humans create. This film won an Oscar in the documentaries category.
And for a taste of Bass himself, the third video below is him talking briefly about making money vs. doing quality work.
