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The 007 Logo Evolution
Looking back on 64 years since the original logo’s reveal.
The American poster for Dr. No’s release in 1962 introduced the world to the 007 logo, designed by Joseph Caroff. Caroff had previously designed the poster for West Side Story and, a year later, originated the concept of 007’s digits and pistol to form the logo that would continue in use for decades.
The next film, From Russia With Love, saw Caroff’s design used in the American poster, but not in the UK poster by Renato Fratini that instead featured the pistol overlayed on the text. Similarly, Robert Brownjohn’s poster designs for Goldfinger didn’t feature the logo but the French and Japanese posters did.
When it came to Thunderball, Bob McGinnis, a paperback-cover artist, and Frank McCarthy, an adventure artist, were responsible for painting the film’s poster. The result was a design that heavily utilised the digits of the logo, but not the pistol, incorporating ‘007’ into the tagline, ‘Look up! Look down! Look out!’.
The logo was utilised fully in promotional imagery for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, and Roger Moore’s first outing as Bond, Live and Let Die. The latter film’s UK poster by Robert McGinnis incorporated the 0s of the logo into the Os of Moore’s name.
By The Man With The Golden Gun, the logo had become commonplace on the poster, in its original form of digits and pistol, and was used across Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan’s turns as Bond. As Daniel Craig was introduced as Bond, the Casino Royale film poster utilised the same trick as Live And Let Die, turning the film title’s Os into 0s. This was then repeated for Quantum Of Solace.
Caroff’s original design returned for the 60 Years of Bond logo while the more modern logo is a symbol of the official endorsement of the James Bond franchise and has appeared on the interior of Aston Martin cars, on Omega watches, the rear foil of an F1 racing car and in 2021 for the release of No Time To Die as pop up statues in Leicester Square.
Elsewhere in the world of 007, as per ASA guidelines in the UK, it has long been the legal guidance not to explicitly link alcohol and firearms. As such, the 007 logo sees a slight alteration with these partnerships by dropping the pistol. This is mirrored in the 2022 collection from The Macallan that celebrated 60 years of partnership with James Bond.
