Jul 12, 2012

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VINTAGE 007

The Brief

The brief I gave all the designers was to be inspired by Saul Bass, a graphic designer and filmmaker, perhaps best known for his design of film posters and motion-picture title sequences, including Psycho, The Man with the Golden Arm, and North by Northwest. Bass once described his main goal for his title sequences as being to ‘try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story’.

Our colour palette was referenced from Bass’s posters, and we introduced an authentic retro feel by cutting out our designs. With six designers working over fourteen titles it was important for the visuals to cohere.

Folio was one of the first popular sans-serif fonts and was used in a lot of newspaper and display graphics of the period. As we were keen to reference the period and content when the books were written, rather than the movies of the sixties and seventies, the font was perfect for the graphic film posters of the fifties and sixties.

Folio is a realist sans-serif font designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum in 1957, and is more closely related to Akzidenz Grotesk (1896) than similar fonts like Helvetica. It has a strong circular O in its bold version, which formed an important feature within our designs, and had the added attraction of having a very fifties-feeling bold condensed version. Mixing the two gives an immediate retro feel, whilst having fresh take on layout also keeps the covers contemporary.

The deadline was tight and we had already produced the first six covers when the market research came in and confirmed our choice of brief.

– Suzanne Dean

Casino Royale

Casino Royale was Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, and he had sketched out a cover design describing it as ‘exquisite symmetry and absolute chastity’. It was important to me to nod towards this original design, but to simplify it and introduce an edgier element. The question I had was how far could I pare down the nine of hearts playing card, while still making it obviously recognisable.

– Suzanne Dean

Live and Let Die

Having decided upon a movie poster style, this allowed for the typography of Live and Let Die to have a playful element. The title rising from the grave symbolises the voodoo themes of the novel along with the supernatural colour palette. Then to ‘cap’ it off, Baron Samedi can be seen appearing within the shadows.

– James Jones

Moonraker

The Moonraker of the title refers to the name of a missile in the book, and so I worked on a design which included a simplified V-2 missile shape within the letterforms. Though the moon is absent from the book, written fourteen years before the first moon landing, the circular Os in the design do give a faint hint of the later more moon-based movie.

– Stephen Parker

Diamonds Are Forever

The story follows Bond around the world on a mission to track down a diamond-smuggling ring. By creating sharp angles with the type, the diamond shape can be seen in the negative space, with crosshairs adding a hint of the danger we associate with James Bond.

– Julia Connolly

From Russia with Love

The story centres on a plot by SMERSH to assassinate Bond. This is represented by trapping the bullet within the U, just as Bond traps the bullet with his metal cigarette case. The red and black colour theme emphasizes the communist operations and espionage throughout the novel.

– Suzanne Dean

Dr No

Dr No is a reclusive villain living on Crab Key, a mysterious private Caribbean island. He lives like this

because he believes the concept of securing power begins with absolute secrecy. The graphic is constructed to suggest this self-enforced isolation, with the elongated shadow of ‘No’ referring to the looming menace within.

– Matt Broughton

Goldfinger

Bond’s antagonist in the novel is Auric Goldfinger, a man with an unhealthy obsession with gold, hence the title colouring. The bullet hole/broken glass motif is a nod to the way Goldfinger’s factotum, Oddjob, receives his comeuppance – an ending that is reserved for Goldfinger himself in the film version.

– Matt Broughton

For Your Eyes Only

A key moment in the book, and memorable scene from the film, is when one of Bond’s targets is unexpectedly killed by a woman with a crossbow. So the arrow is used to dramatically cut through the type. This interaction of title and image, and the use of block colours, was inspired by Saul Bass’s classic film posters.

– Julia Connolly

Thunderball

Thunderball is the operation to recover two atomic bombs threatening to destroy two major cities. This dual threat is suggested by the positive and negative bomb shapes within the design. The action of the book mainly takes place underwater and the colour, speargun and radar lines are suggestive of this.

– Kris Potter

The Spy Who Loved Me

A challenge to work on, The Spy Who Loved Me had many covers along the way. Even though the story is told from a female perspective early visuals were too feminine in their approach, and a departure from the rest of the series. Having experimented with roses and fire, the idea of scorching the bullet holed Os seemed to hint at the burnt love represented within the novel.

– James Jones

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

The graphic for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service conceals a Union Jack – a reference to Bond’s employers. By splitting the words ‘secret’ and ‘service’ we’re encouraged to read an all-too-familiar title without noticing the typographical conflict – the idea that there is more if you look beneath the surface.

– Matt Broughton

You Only Live Twice

When reading You Only Live Twice, the image that stuck in my mind was the mysterious ‘Garden of Death’ where people had been flocking to kill themselves. The exotic plants with their deadly dripping poisons lent themselves to both the colour and playful treatment of the type.    

– Kris Potter

The Man with the Golden Gun

The Man with the Golden Gun is designed to form the suggestion of a gun shape, and the extending lines speak of sightlines and trajectories. The end view of the golden bullet, which has Bond’s name on it, adds a graphic counterbalance to the design and may even be misinterpreted as Scaramanaga’s third nipple!

– Stephen Parker

Octopussy and The Living Daylights

With the novel being compiled of short stories, both titles needed to be represented on one cover. As the octopus is such a key element, it made sense to use the tentacles to help draw the reader in. This allowed for a more subtle sniper element for The Living Daylights, and having two different colours for the titles helped differentiate them further. 

– James Jones

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