Post Modern is what I was taught at uni.

Bass is definitely not Post Modern.

Would you think they are BOTH post-modern?

One definition of postmodern: a term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period, i.e., from the 1950s until recently. The term implies a shift away from the formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally stringent Pop artists, and other art movements which followed. By this definition, Saul Bass is decidedly postmodern.

Nick, no offense but that's the shittiest definition of postmodernism ever.

Then, please do offer a better one...

Most well-known artists are representative of their eras.
And vice versa.
That's the way that Great Man history works.

Bass was a modernist, working in the "mid-century modern" era.
The hand lettering he favored, contrasted against gridular layouts, can be compared to the texture of natural materials such as marble and wood in the architecture of Mies and Gropius.
His cartesian affair is clearly evident in the title sequence of NXNW.
Film is a grid, imposed on time, formalized like comic-book panels in story-boards.

I'm not sure how representative of their time type designers are, especially if their careers are long.

Here is as good definition of post modernism as you are going to find: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/postmodernism.htm

Hey, a man's gotta eat, but...

...non-corporate post-apocalyptic graffiti.

Do you think Paul Rand and Alvin Lustig are postmodern, post-apocalyptic graffiti as well?

You need to read up on Rand: you'll have him rolling over in his grave, calling him postmodern...

not postmodern

Oldnick, I think your definition of modernism may be too restrictive, and hence lots of work that I would consider modernist gets shunted under your postmodernist umbrella. The relationship of modernist art and design to industrial capitalism is decidedly multifaceted and ranges from triumphalism to outright hostility and rejection.

But, in terms of his film title work—perhaps his most visually stunning and memorable—he is decidedly postmodern,

Sorry, I don't see that. Bass was a reductive formalist. You can't get more modernist than that.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963):

Seconds (1966):

Goodfellas (1990, late enough to be postmodern):

There is nothing deconstructive, complex, or ambiguous about these, they are all straight-ahead expositions of the pure power of simplified imagery and typography, which was his forte.

Re. postmodernism, one should follow the generally understood meaning.

"Modern" suffers from a lot of confusion and conflation of terms.

One of my favourite books of architectural history is Joseph Rykwert's study of the 18th Century, entitled The First Moderns.

thank you, everyone, for this great discussion. a student of mine was trying to create a small piece, loosely around a series of different designers he admired. as it happened, he had chosen mucha, cassandre, bass and sagmeister. discussing it, it occurred to me that certainly mucha, cassandre and sagmeister fell into stylistic 'groupings,' and i was particularly curious as to what thoughts you had about bass. i thought, "hmm. i'd say, most likely, 'modernist.'" but i was keen to hear your thoughts.

by the way, the student has been following this thread as well; this is exactly the kind of thoughtful and informed discussion i told him he would find here.

Good question and interesting discussion. Here's my somewhat flippant take:

Saul Bass:Matisse cutouts meets Hard Edge Painting meets Op Art.
Stefan Sagmeister: Performance Art meets Installation Art meets Conceptual art meets Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity).

Bass didn't do the lettering for his posters.
http://typophile.com/node/31052

This is a great discussion and I have to say I was swayed a little by oldnick's argument for Bass as a postmodernist. My understanding has always been that he is classified as a modernist from the New York School. But I was always very aware of how different American mid-century modernist graphic designed looked from its European counterpart. Compare Josef Müller-Brockmann and Siegfried Odermatt's work to Alvin Lustig and Saul Bass's. Very different; still modern, just more American— a little more pragmatic, informal, and spontaneous.

After seeing all the examples posted, I would say that Saul Bass's work looks much more like it embodies the end of american modernism rather than defining the start of postmodernism. Which I would say doesn't begin until the 1960's with Glaser, Chwast, Ruffins, and Sorel.

But I suppose that could continue the debate...