Joe Caroff’s quick sketch of a gun-barrel turned three digits into Bond’s enduring insignia.
Joe Caroff, the graphic designer behind James Bond’s famous 007 logo, has died aged 103 in New York just a day before his 104th birthday. His family confirmed that he passed away at home in Manhattan.
Although Caroff worked on more than 300 film campaigns his most famous creation came in 1962 when United Artists needed a small design for publicity material tied to the first Bond film Dr No. In that moment he turned the stem of the number seven into the handle of a pistol and attached a barrel and trigger. Inspired by Ian Fleming’s Walther PPK the image became the emblem that has appeared on every Bond film since. He later recalled the idea as instant and effortless saying “I knew Bond’s designation was 007 and when I wrote the stem of the seven I thought that looks like the handle of a gun to me.”
For the work Caroff was paid $300 with no royalties and no credit yet the design brought him attention and steady commissions throughout his career. On his 100th birthday Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson finally acknowledged the logo’s importance by sending him an Omega watch engraved with the 007 emblem.
Born in Linden New Jersey in 1921 Caroff studied advertising design at Pratt Institute before serving in the US Army during the Second World War. Returning home he began designing book jackets including Norman Mailer’s debut novel The Naked and the Dead and then moved into film posters. His work included West Side Story Cabaret A Hard Day’s Night and Gandhi as well as corporate logos for Orion Pictures ABC News and the television programme 20/20.
He retired in 2006 to focus on painting but never attached any special significance to his Bond design. “Probably not a smart thing to do but I never attached what I was doing to any greatness,” he said later in life. “I was just working period. I was just being an artist.” For Bond fans however his sketch of three simple numbers remains one of the defining images of the series.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
