Joe Caroff graphic designer who created James Bond 007 logo and iconic movie posters dies at 103

Joe Caroff, designer of the James Bond 007 logo and classic film posters, dies in Manhattan at 103.

Joe Caroff, the graphic designer behind the famed James Bond 007 logo and hundreds of movie posters, died Sunday in Manhattan at age 103, one day before his 104th birthday. His sons, Peter and Michael Caroff, confirmed he died under home hospice care.

Caroff’s career spanned more than seven decades, producing striking imagery for films such as West Side Story (1961), Manhattan (1979), Cabaret (1972), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), and Last Tango in Paris (1972). He also designed Norman Mailer’s debut novel cover, The Naked and the Dead (1948), at the age of 27. Despite the cultural reach of his work, Caroff rarely signed his designs and generally avoided self-promotion, leaving him less recognized than contemporaries like Saul Bass and Paul Rand.

Among his many contributions, none proved more enduring than his work for the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962). Commissioned to create a publicity logo, he sketched the numerals 007 and integrated the outline of a pistol into the number seven, capturing the essence of espionage. “I knew that 007 meant license to kill; that, I think, at an unconscious level, was the reason I knew the gun had to be in the logo,” Caroff said in the 2022 documentary By Design: The Joe Caroff Story. With only minor modifications, the logo has been used across 25 official Bond films and countless merchandising campaigns.

Throughout his career, Caroff described himself as a “service provider” rather than an auteur, often prioritizing deadlines over recognition. His wife, Phyllis, recalled that he was never paid royalties for his designs, though the Bond producers presented him with a 007-engraved watch on his 100th birthday.

Caroff’s wife of 81 years, Phyllis, a Hunter College professor, died earlier this year. He is survived by his two sons and a granddaughter. When reflecting on his work, Caroff once said: “I never made a big thing of it. It was a job, I wanted to get it done. I always met my deadlines.”