Vertigo: a film poster by Saul Bass. A masterclass in graphic communication Film director Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Vertigo is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made: a story of morbid, doomed romance and a degenerate, illusory love. The story of the film’s poster designer, Saul Bass, is an equally thrilling one. In the late 1950s, he revolutionised the graphic presentation of the feature film through his treatment of the title sequence and the poster. Bass is crit

[From the archive] When safe is not sound. The spirit of the age seems to be one of scaremongering, with ads feeding on all our fears. We need a more positive outlook as we enter the new millennium As we approach 1999 and the 365-day countdown to the new millennium, we should expect a host of documentaries, exhibitions and books about the current and future prospects for humanity. A tall order, but an irresistible project nonetheless. Who could shy away from a debate about re

A Very British [Design] Coup at the General Post Office in the 30s The decade preceding the outbreak of World War II was a pivotal moment in the development of graphic design as a profession. The 1930s saw the commissioning of graphic designers, for the first time, at the General Post Office (GPO) and was central in the changing fortunes of a very British institution. The GPO would employ some of the brightest and best that would go on to be regarded as part of the graphic de