Version 1.2 of the [Vertigo theme for Tumblr](http://saulbass.tumblr.com) is now available, with support for notes and follower lists. To upgrade to the new version, copy the contents of [this text file](http://theme.matthewbuchanan.name/themes/vertigo/vertigo-theme-1-2.txt) into the Custom HTML field of the [Customize](http://www.tumblr.com/customize) panel on your Dashboard. Vertigo is now in the [Theme Garden](http://www.tumblr.com/themes/recent) too!
Version 1.1 of the [Vertigo theme for Tumblr](http://saulbass.tumblr.com) is now available. The main additions are support for search and an upgrade to the sIFR font replacement technology that fixes (finally) the inability to click links in replaced text. In response to a user request the theme now also replaces smilies in text :-). If you use the theme and wish to tip the author, you can [do so here](http://tipjoy.com/u/matthewbuchanan/) and I'll probably put it towards [this](http://matthewbuchanan.name/post/57036932/sopranos-gift-set), thanks! To upgrade to the new version, copy the contents of [this text file](http://theme.matthewbuchanan.name/themes/vertigo/vertigo-theme-1-2.txt) into the Custom HTML field of the [Customize](http://www.tumblr.com/customize) area on your Dashboard.
An excerpt from Archie Boston's documentary on Saul Bass, in which the designer talks about collaborating with his wife Elaine and about getting paid to play with toys.
Vertigo is a free [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com) theme by [Matthew Buchanan](http://matthewbuchanan.name/post/39733076/vertigo-theme-for-tumblr), inspired by the design work of the late Saul Bass and released 24 June 2008 under [Creative Commons](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). To install the theme on your Tumblr site, copy the contents of [vertigo-theme-1-2.txt](http://theme.matthewbuchanan.name/themes/vertigo/vertigo-theme-1-2.txt) into the Custom HTML field of the [Customize](http://www.tumblr.com/customize) area on your Tumblr Dashboard. (If this doesn't make sense, Richard Dunlop-Walters has [a tutorial](http://customthemes.tumblr.com/private/38816840/v8QP0gMBDacpk7e9MDYupn7R) that explains the process visually.) The theme includes a single custom colour named "Accent", which allows you to change all the orange elements to a different shade (look in Customize under "Colors" once the theme is installed). Bright colours work best with the dark background.
Design is thinking made visual.
SAUL BASS (1920-1996) was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design thanks to his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. When the reels of film for Otto Preminger’s controversial new drugs movie, _The Man with the Golden Arm_, arrived at US movie theatres in 1955, a note was stuck on the cans — "Projectionists: pull curtain before titles". Until then, the lists of cast and crew members which passed for movie titles were so dull that projectionists only pulled back the curtains to reveal the screen once they’d finished. But Preminger wanted his audience to see _The Man with the Golden Arm_’s titles as an integral part of the film. [Read more.](http://www.designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass/)
If any one person can be credited with having introduced the idea of "high concept"—the single striking image or pithy phrase that immediately sums up a creative work—to the movie industry, it would have to be Saul Bass.
—From Philip Kemp's [short biography](http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ba-Bo/Bass-Saul.html) of Saul Bass.