Earlier last week while my musical theater class was studying West Side Story, we spent time analyzing the famous poster from the 1961 film version of the show. I really enjoyed our conversation and decided to do more research into the artist who was behind this masterpiece that has now become an icon of American pop culture. While many people misattribute this design to Saul Bass, this poster was actually created by an artist named Joseph Caroff. I discovered that Caroff has quite the resume – in addition to working on West Side Story’s film campaign, he also created the 007 James Bond logo, worked on many projects for ABC studios, and developed many album cover designs for Decca Records.
Check out more about Joseph Caroff’s work and bio here:
FNAR 264-403 Art / Design / Digital Culture 