Joe Caroff died on August 17, just a day short of turning 104 years old. He was an American graphic designer known for film posters and corporate design work and worked on over 300 films. Caroff created the 007 pistol logo for the James Bond movie franchise for which he was allegedly paid only $300. Initially intended for use on film studio letterheads, it went on to become an instantly recognisable piece of branding for the movie franchise. You can read his New York Times obituary
here, however even more interesting is an excellent article written by Steven Heller for PRINT magazine in 2021, titled
The Most Prolific Designer You’ve Never Heard Of...and what better time to review these superb invitations produced for Skyfall...
SKYFALL 2012
The James Bond franchise is a global phenomenon and one which over the years has made those involved in the production and marketing a lot of money. However many people may not remember that due to the recession, Bond film number 23 (as Skyfall was then known) was put
on hold in 2010 due to lack of cash. Having originally meant to be released in 2011, it was eventually released in October 2012.
Film Premieres of this scale demand lavish and expensive invitations and collateral. In quality terms they must live up to and possibly exceed, the expectations of the forthcoming film.
Below is a small 4pp wallet (with pocket) which is 180mmx107mm, printed offset litho in CMYK plus a gold special colour on Omnia 280gsm with the ticket printed CMYK and hot foil blocked in metallic gold foil on Omnia 280gsm duplexed to 560gsm.
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| Click on images to enlarge |
The ticket is also hot foil blocked on the reverse.The launch of this type of film requires several events and these represent tickets for the screenings at The Royal Albert Hall, the Odeon Leicester Square and the after show party at the Tate. As you will notice from the reverse of the wallet (below) the litho printed gold actually looks gold! ..this is a feature of Omnia and where is scores over ordinary uncoated papers.
Below is the ticket for the Odeon Leicester Square which is 99x210mm, Landscape.The ticket is printed in CMYK plus gloss black foil, which you can hopefully see in the picture below.This ticket which is also printed on Omnia 280gsm is mounted on our Sumo 2000microns which makes the invitation 2.5mm thick!Printing is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood, Kent and they made a superb job of it - colour reproduction and solids are superb - the hot foil blocking is perfectly executed (Identity are one of the few printers to have hot foil blocking facilities 'in-house')https://www.identityprint.co.uk/https://www.007.com/Posted by Justin Hobson 22.08.2025
The James Bond franchise is a global phenomenon and one which over the years has made those involved in the production and marketing a lot of money. However many people may not remember that due to the recession, Bond film number 23 (as Skyfall was then known) was put on hold in 2010 due to lack of cash. Having originally meant to be released in 2011, it was eventually released in October 2012.
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