Joe Caroff, the legendary graphic artist who designed the famous 007 logo and several movie posters and title sequences for the likes of Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci and Woody Allen, has died. He was 103.
Joe Caroff’s name might not have the heft as some other notable poster and title card designers, but that’s because he rarely took credit. With that, he could never receive residuals, something that no doubt would have earned him a lot more money – and fame. For his James Bond design, he earned just $300. As far as how he came up with the James Bond logo, Caroff once said, “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.’ It was very spontaneous, no effort, it was an instant piece of creativity.”
And while Joe Caroff’s contributions to original James Bond movie posters were limited to his logo – something seen even up until No Time to Die’s poster – he is said to have created over 300 others. These include West Side Story, Cabaret, For a Few Dollars More, A Hard Day’s Night, Last Tango in Paris, and so many others. Debate could be made over which is his most famous – and a rightful case could be made for so many – but I’ve always found the simplicity and use of blank space he gave to Woody Allen’s Manhattan to be a superb representation of the film.
Outside of posters, Joe Caroff also did the title design for Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (although he did the artwork for that film as well, the two of which mimic one another), Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far and Gene Saks’ Brighton Beach Memoirs, to name a few.
Outside of his direct film work, Joe Caroff created the book jacket for Norman Mailer’s WWII novel The Naked and the Dead, the logo for Orion Pictures and the design for ABC’s Olympics coverage. In 2022, he was the subject of the documentary By Design: The Joe Caroff Story, currently streaming on HBO Max.
RIP to the great Joe Caroff, whose name will hopefully get more recognition and credit than it previously did.
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