Bass Styles

Tile designs by Saul Bass, as featured in Motif, issue 8, 1961.

"In considering the problem of how to approach a surface, there
seem to be several key elements involved. One is colour, another
is pattern or decoration, and still another is the use of the sculptured
or raised surface. When I was asked by Pomona Tile Company
to participate in their design programme, it was this latter
possibility, the sculptural approach, that seemed to demand exploration in relation to tiles.

What resulted is a group of designs that present the possibilities
of treating the tile wall in contemporary terms as a bas-relief.
Since the forms of these tiles are described and delineated by
light, one of the qualities that emerged was that they appeared to
change, as the direction and intensity of the light changed.

The designs have many possibilities in application ranging from
individual tiles sprinkled on a wall; massing in sections; complete
walls; to exterior as well as interior use in areas not normally
considered tile areas. It was my intention that all of these possibilities would occur as a result of a group of designs that would be simple, and yet permissive of a high level of individuality in each of its varied applications."

SAUL BASS

Beat School

In 1961 British Pathe News paid a visit to Burgess Hill School, Hertfordshire, a progressive boarding school for artistic children. Traditional school uniform is replaced by shades, caps, quiffs and corduroy, and smoking is encouraged because it "calms the nerves". There are some very nice looking murals in the background. Subjects appear to include listening to jazz, smoking, abstract painting, motorbikes, doing the Twist and, erm, Elgar. Sounds like a groovy kind of place, Daddio.

The Art of Colour

The Art of Colour
Johannes Itten
Van Nostrand, New York, 1973

Originally published as "Kunst der Farbe", 1961, Germany.

Johannes Itten taught at the Bauhaus before he disagreed with Walther Gropius over the direction of the school toward mass production over individual artistic endeavor. He left and was replaced by Maholy-Nagy. Itten continued to write and teach at a number of other institutions.

Here are some students from Itten's harmonic colour combination art class. After voicing their dissatisfaction with the colour combinations they had been assigned, Itten allowed them to come up with their own combinations.

Every student produced different results and Itten realized that each had their own private conception of colour harmony, or subjective colour. He discusses the way the students' work reveals their 'auras' and 'painting personalities', a classic example of the modernist urge to categorize and order, with a dash of mysticism thrown in.

Itten's colour harmony diagrams have their own geometric beauty.