Art of the Title

  • Title Sequences
  • Designers + Studios
  • Titles
  • Features
  • Designers
  • Studios

Recent

  • An Update from the Editor in Chief

    An Update from the Editor in Chief

    An update from Art of the Title's Editor in Chief

    View article

  • Top Five: Chloe Okuno

    Top Five: Chloe Okuno

    Director and screenwriter Chloe Okuno discusses her favorite title sequences including horror from the '70s  and '90s and how important sound design is for setting tone

    View article

  • Liaison

    Liaison

    We dive into the latest from title designer and Emmy nominee Saskia Marka for sultry thriller Liaison

    View article

Recommended

  • Shōgun
  • Silo
  • The Beekeeper
  • Beetlejuice
  • Zardoz
  • Batman
  • Enemy
  • He Got Game

Classic

  • Casino
  • It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  • Medium Cool
View all features View all titles

Designers

  • Aaron Becker •
  • Aaron Sorenson •
  • Alan Williams •
  • Alejandro Damiani •
  • Allison Brownmoore •
  • Alva Lundin
  • Amanda Koh •
  • Ana Criado Zahonero •
  • Andrew Doucette •
  • Angus Wall •
  • Anna Lindqvist
  • Anthony Farac
  • Anthony Goldschmidt
  • Arisu Kashiwagi •
  • Art Clokey
  • Audrey Davis •
  • Barbara Laszewski Garner •
  • Belinda Bennetts
  • Ben Conrad
  • Benedetta Cappelloni
  • Ben Radatz •
  • Ben Smith •
  • Beth Li
  • Betty Green •
  • Bhakti Patel •
  • Bill Kroyer •
  • Bonnie Siegler
  • Brian Mah •
  • Bryce Wymer •
  • Catalina Matamoros Puerto
  • Charles de Lauzirika
  • Chuck Braverman •
  • Claire Typaldos
  • Clarissa Donlevy
  • Clemens Wirth •
  • Daniel Kanemoto
  • Daniel Kleinman •
  • Danny Yount •
  • Dan Perri •
  • Darius Ghanai
  • David Clayton
  • David Daniels •
  • David Fincher •
  • David Penn
  • Dean Wares
  • Deborah Ross
  • Derek W. Hayes •
  • Don Record
  • Douy Swofford
  • Drew Goddard •
  • Duarte Elvas •
  • Edd Kargin •
  • Edgar Wright •
  • Elaine Bass •
  • Elinor Bunin Munroe
  • Ellen Kahn
  • Ennio Morricone
  • Eric Anderson •
  • Erin Sarofsky •
  • Ernest D. Farino
  • Etsuko Uji
  • Felix Soletic •
  • Fernando Domínguez Cózar •
  • Filipe Carvalho •
  • Florence Deygas •
  • Francisco Sánchez de Cañete •
  • Frank Hillsberg
  • Galen Johnson •
  • Gareth Edwards •
  • Gareth Smith •
  • Garry Tutte •
  • Garry Waller
  • Garson Yu •
  • Geefwee Boedoe •
  • Geoff McFetridge
  • Grace Kang
  • Guilherme Marcondes •
  • Handel Eugene
  • Harold Adler
  • Hassan Rahim •
  • Hattie Stewart •
  • Hazel Baird •
  • Heather Brantman
  • Heidi Berg •
  • Helen Greene •
  • Henry Chang •
  • Henry Hobson •
  • Howard Nourmand •
  • Hugo Moss •
  • Iginio Lardani
  • Ilgi Candar
  • Jack Cole
  • James Baxter
  • James Ramirez •
  • James Ransom •
  • James S. Pollak
  • Jamie Caliri
  • Jamie McBriety •
  • Jared Hess •
  • Jarik Van Sluijs •
  • Jason Doherty •
  • Jay Bond •
  • Jay Johnson
  • Jean Fouchet
  • Jean-Luc Godard
  • Jeff Han •
  • Jeffrey A. Okun
  • Jenny Lee •
  • Jeremy Cox •
  • Jeremy Lasky
  • Jessica Hische •
  • Jessica Ledoux •
  • Jim Capobianco •
  • Jim Helton
  • Joan Lau •
  • Joel Hodgson
  • Joel Venti •
  • Johanna Weinstein
  • John LePore
  • John Likens
  • Johnny Kelly
  • John Wash •
  • Jon Poll •
  • Jorge Calvo •
  • Josh Schonblum •
  • Joyce N. Ho •
  • Julian van Mil •
  • Julien Widmer
  • Jurriaan Hos •
  • Karin Fong •
  • Kasumi Mihori
  • Kathie Broyles •
  • Kathy Zielinski
  • Kelli Miller •
  • Kevin Chandoo
  • Kevin Dart •
  • Kook Ewo
  • Krystal Sojourner •
  • Krystian Morgan
  • Kurt Mattila •
  • Kurt Volk •
  • Kyle Cooper •
  • Lauren Hartstone •
  • Laurent Brett
  • Leanne Dare •
  • Leanne Shapton
  • Lisa Bolan •
  • Lollie Ortiz
  • Lynda Kahn
  • Manija Emran •
  • Mara Smalley Midura
  • Marc Chartrand •
  • Marc Smith •
  • Marga Castaño
  • Margaret Dost •
  • Margherita Premuroso •
  • Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks •
  • Maribel Martínez Galindo
  • Mark Gardner •
  • Marlene McCarty •
  • Mary Meacham Hogg
  • Matt Bateman
  • Maurice Binder
  • Max Strizich •
  • Merijn Hos •
  • Michael Riley •
  • Michel François •
  • Michelle Dougherty •
  • Miki Kato •
  • Mimi Everett •
  • Mischa Rozema •
  • Moises Arancibia •
  • My Tran •
  • Nader Husseini •
  • Nadia Tzuo •
  • Nathaniel Park •
  • Neal Holman •
  • Nic Benns •
  • Nina Paley •
  • Nina Saxon •
  • Nirvan Mullick •
  • Olga Capdevila •
  • Olga Midlenko
  • Olivier Kuntzel •
  • Olney Atwell
  • Onur Senturk •
  • Oscar Wright •
  • Pablo Ferro •
  • Pablo González •
  • Pamela B. Green •
  • Patrick Clair •
  • Paul Donnellon •
  • Paul Julian
  • Paul Kim •
  • Paul McDonnell •
  • Pendleton Ward •
  • Penelope Gottlieb
  • Penelope Nederlander •
  • Peter Frankfurt •
  • Rachel Fowler •
  • Raleigh Stewart
  • Rama Allen •
  • Randall Balsmeyer •
  • Raoul Marks •
  • Richard Greenberg •
  • Richard Kenworthy •
  • Richard Morrison •
  • Richard Williams
  • Robert Brownjohn
  • Robert Dawson •
  • Robert Greenberg •
  • Ronald Searle
  • Sai Selvarajan •
  • Sally Cruikshank •
  • Sam Sparks •
  • Sandy Dvore
  • Saskia Marka •
  • Saul Bass •
  • Sekani Solomon •
  • Simon Cassels •
  • Simon Clowes •
  • Soyeon Kim •
  • Stefan G. Bucher
  • Stéphane Coëdel •
  • Stephen Faustina •
  • Stephen Frankfurt
  • Steve Fuller •
  • Steve Seeley •
  • Steve Tozzi
  • Steve Viola •
  • Susan Bradley •
  • Svenja Frahm •
  • Synderela Peng •
  • Tamsin McGee •
  • Teddy Blanks •
  • The Chiodo Bros. •
  • Tim Miller •
  • Tnaya Witmer •
  • Todd Hemker •
  • Tom Barham •
  • Tom Kan •
  • Upasana Nattoji Roy •
  • Victoria Vaus
  • Vijesh Rajan •
  • Wayne Fitzgerald •
  • Wenden K. Baldwin •
  • William Lebeda •
  • Xiaolin Zeng •
  • Yashoda Parthasarthy •
  • Yi-Jen Liu •
  • Yongsub Song •
  • Yuanchen Jiang
  • Zephyr
Grid view

Studios

  • 344 Design
  • Add a Dog
  • Alma Mater
  • Antibody
  • Aparato
  • Balsmeyer & Everett, Inc.
  • Big Film Design
  • Blac Ionica
  • Blue Spill
  • Blur Studio
  • Breeder
  • Chic & Artistic
  • Chiodo Bros. Productions
  • Click 3X
  • CREATOR
  • Curious Pictures
  • Digital Kitchen
  • Double Negative
  • DUCK Studios
  • Elastic
  • Ex Mortis Films
  • Filmograph
  • Flat-e
  • Framestore
  • Frederator Studios
  • Gentleman Scholar
  • Goldtooth Creative
  • Grand Jeté
  • Greenhaus GFX
  • Hornet Inc.
  • Huge Designs
  • Hush
  • Imaginary Forces
  • ISO
  • Laika
  • Laundry
  • leftchannel
  • Lipsync Post
  • Logan
  • Lucky 21
  • M & Co.
  • Me & the Bootmaker
  • Method Design
  • MK12
  • Molinare
  • Momoco
  • Nexus Productions
  • Nina Saxon Film Design
  • NuFrame
  • Oily Film Company
  • Pacific Title and Art Studio
  • Perception
  • Peter Anderson Studio
  • PIC Agency
  • Picturemill
  • Pixar Animation Studios
  • Plexus
  • Plucky
  • Prologue Films
  • R/Greenberg Associates (R/GA)
  • Rankin/Bass Productions
  • Rattling Stick
  • REANIMATION
  • Sarofsky Corp.
  • Saxon/Ross Film Design
  • Sci-FX Studio
  • Shine
  • Shynola
  • Smith & Lee Design
  • Smog
  • Struck
  • Studio Dialog
  • The Mill
  • The Morrison Studio
  • The Panics
  • Tomato
  • Troublemaker Studios
  • Twinart
  • VooDooDog
  • WERK
  • Weta Digital
  • Yellowshed
  • yU+co
Grid view
• Full interview available, click to view.

Carmen Jones (1954)

Carmen Jones
When I love you, dat's the end of you.
—Carmen Jones
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Post
  • More

Carmen Jones is playwright Oscar Hammerstein II’s adaptation of Carmen, a 19th-century French opera set in Seville, Spain. In it, serviceman Don José is seduced away from his military duties and fiancée by a young gypsy named Carmen, ending – as operas often do – in tragedy for all involved.

Hammerstein’s adaptation strips the opera down to its core narrative and redresses it as a modern love story, setting it in the American deep South during WWII and transforming José into Joe, an African-American serviceman in love with Carmen Jones, who, ironically, manufactures parachutes for the War. Joe’s blind love for Carmen turns to jealousy when her affections are instead given to another man, setting in motion a chain of events from which there is no turning back.

Carmen Jones was Saul Bass’ first title sequence, and he landed the gig quite by accident. Having just moved from New York to Los Angeles to establish his practice, he was contacted by director Otto Preminger to brand the film. Preminger was so impressed with his work that he suggested that he also direct the sequence, thus beginning Bass’ forty-plus year career as a title designer.

The sequence is a combination of two simple, symbolic elements: an illustration of a rose and a perpetual fire, superimposed over one another for the duration of the sequence. For Bass, these elements summarized the emotional core of the film, in which love, lust, greed, betrayal, and rage are not only key motivators but are often ambiguous and indistinguishable from one another. Similarly, Bass echoes this confusion of intent by presenting the rose as a timid line drawing against the red-tinted live-action fire, assigning neither a clear symbolic value. And while a first read of Bass’ symbols would indicate that love is inevitably consumed by the flames of lust, it is noteworthy that neither the fire or the rose decay over the course of the sequence, indicating that the two are perhaps imperishable and distinct by their own merit, forced into an uncommon union by external factors.

It could also easily be assumed that the rose is symbolic of Joe’s love for Carmen, and the fire is representative of Carmen’s wild (and occasionally dangerous) nature. But both Carmen and Joe are complex characters, waning through the emotional spectrum over the course of the film. As such, neither symbol is an accurate summary of their individual motives; instead, Bass’ juxtaposition of the two speaks more to the eventual polarization of their dynamic relationship.

The sequence is scored with an adaptation of Georges Biset’s “Carmen Overture” – a nod to the original 1845 opera. The typeface and the title cards themselves were designed and set by Harold Adler – a lettering artist who would continue to collaborate with Bass for another twenty years on many of his title and film branding projects, including Psycho and The Seven Year Itch.

  • Credits

Titles Designed by: Saul Bass
Lettering by: Harold Adler

Discover more Saul Bass

Sponsor Logo

SAUL BASS: A LIFE IN FILM AND DESIGN

By Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham

Related

  • The Title Design of Saul and Elaine Bass

    The Title Design of Saul and Elaine Bass

    feature

  • Bunny Lake is Missing

    Bunny Lake is Missing

    summary

  • Anatomy of a Murder

    Anatomy of a Murder

    summary

  • Ocean’s Eleven

    Ocean’s Eleven

    summary

  • Vertigo

    Vertigo

    summary

  • It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

    It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

    summary

Title sequence

  • Title Designer

    Saul Bass
  • Lettering

    Harold Adler
  • Category

    Film
  • Styles

    1950s, graphic, live action, main title, mixed-media, typographic
Carmen Jones
  • Film Director

    Otto Preminger
  • Release Date

    October 28, 1954
  • Aspect Ratio

    2.39:1
  • Studio

    Twentieth Century Fox
  • Country

    USA
  • Language

    English
  • Reviews

    Reviews on Letterboxd
  • IMDb has full details

Article

  • Writer

    Ben Radatz
  • Published

    June 12, 2012

Subscribe to Art of the Title

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • About
  • News
  • Titles
  • Features
  • Designers
  • Studios
  • Sponsorship

Art of the Title is made with ❤ in Toronto and is supported by readers like you.

© 2007–2025 Art of the Title, LLC. All rights reserved.
Works appearing on Art of the Title are the property of their respective owners.

  • Gold Sponsor

    NOW OPEN! LET’S TALK

  • Silver Sponsor

    NOW OPEN! LET’S TALK