Artists design a Bond poster a day for all 23 films

Artists design a Bond poster a day for all 23 films

Herring & Haggis

Art inspiring art: Herring & Haggis drew from the films for their material. James Bond drove a tank through St. Petersburg in Pierce Brosnan's 007 film debut "Goldeneye." 

M once chastised James Bond as a relic of the cold war, but two Florida artists think he is well suited for the digital age.

The glare of Clif Watson’s computer screen illuminated his face as he hurried to finish a new Bond poster by midnight, 23 nights in a row.

Watson, 39, and his fiancé Maria Taylor, 37, set a mission for themselves that even MI6 never assigned to 007: watch a Bond film a day and create a new poster each time â€" all while working day jobs and raising children.

“The project turned into a sort of Bond advent calendar,” Watson told the Daily News. “When you first went to our site, all of those little circles were gray and they were dated. Each day we would upload the new poster for people to see.”

A key location from each film served as a map texture for each poster. Then they chose subjects that were not always that most iconic (martinis, guns, etc.), but ones that could conjure up forgotten memories in Bond fans, such as the cello from “The Living Daylights” or the alligators from “Live and Let Die.”

Herring & Haggis

The artists did not want to rely on the typical James Bond cliches, such as women and drinks, so they focused on more subtle references to the films, such as Kara Milovy's cello from "The Living Daylights."

The marathon art project sped by for the Jacksonville-based artists, who have been professional artists since the mid-90s. They met while working for the same advertising agency and started designing together for personal fulfillment â€" rather than clients â€" under the moniker Herring & Haggis. Taylor (Herring) was raised in Sweden and Watson (Haggis) is of Scottish descent.

Watson bought Taylor, an avid 007 fan, the James Bond Blu-ray box set for her birthday.

“Bond goes back to my childhood,” Taylor said. “I watched the movies with my Dad back home in Sweden, so I was always looking forward to the new Bond movie coming out.”

Herring & Haggis

Herring & Haggis put "Goldfinger" henchman Oddjob front and center in commemoration of what many consider the greatest Bond film ever made.

They started watching “Dr. No,” the first Bond film, serendipitously on Oct. 18: the 50-year anniversary of the film’s theatrical release.

“Here we were a little more than 23 days from the release of ‘Skyfall,’ so we thought it could work as a daily design project,” he said.

At first, they questioned whether they could commit to the undertaking with all of their other responsibilities: “If we get a big enough following,” Watson explained, “we can’t disappoint them. We can’t drop the ball once we start.”

Without the assistance of any classified Q Branch technology, they managed to finish each print in rapid succession until “Skyfall,” which is Watson’s favorite poster from the collection.

Herring & Haggis

The "Skyfall" poster features an image that should be recognizable to anyone who saw the most recent Bond outing. It is Watson's favorite from the project.

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