I discovered this technique of illustration during my year in Switzerland and Milano, 1959-1960. They had the same repro problems with letterpress and newspaper reproduction. I think it came about after looking and admiring so many ads in the Neue Zürich Zeitung -- the Züri-Zeetig in Schweizerdeutsch, but that's a rough translation of a language I never could figure out. This drawing was used for a silk-screened metal sign. Click on image to enlarge.
This is an example of an illustration technique I created to make
a prosaic product look a lot stronger than it would as a traditional
product photo. It is a pen-and-ink drawing made from measurements taken
directly from the camera and stylized to create visual tension between
the black solids and the white lines separating these solids. Click on
image to enlarge.
The Square Shooter had a one-piece plastic camera body that was used for
all the Polaroid Colorpack line of cameras, with a different face plate
added for each mutation. Square Shooter indicated that the camera used
square format film that came along later when Polaroid wanted to lower
its film prices that are all based on the square inches (or cm.) of film
used. [More about that development later.] We had the problem that I
mentioned earlier of having to print by flexography on inexpensive board
used for folding boxes. Click on image to enlarge it.
Above is an example of how this style of line illustration was
effectively used in dealer ads where photo halftones lacked sufficient
punch when reproduced as letterpress in regional publications. The
photo, below, shows how impressive the line art was when enlarged for
display purposes for trade shows.

Click on images to enlarge them.