The Branding of Polaroid, 1957 - 1977

Polaroid Square Shooter Plus, 1974

This was another curve thrown at us. First there were the Polaroid Colorpacks, cameras that used rectangular format film. Then in an economy move, the Polaroid Square Shooters, which used less expensive (and smaller) square format film. Now, we were told, the engineers had come up with a camera that used BOTH film formats. A great concept, but what will work to create product identity?

Above is my solution. I think it solved the problem and created a very striking image, especially when stacked in any number of configurations. This product came after the Polaroid SX-70 (1972). I place it here to continue with the evolution of the color stripes and god's-eye product identity. Click on image for enlargement.

Stacking for effect

Despite the howls of protests from the sales guys who, as I said, wanted to write all over the packages -- words like New! and all the stuff that everyone else says -- they finally came around to liking what they saw at point of sale. Even the dimmest bulb in the photo department of the schlockiest discount outlet could see that he could stack these boxes in almost any way and draw floor traffic to Polaroid products.

The new Polaroid film family of 1970

Actually there was another film package of square format black-and-white film, Type 87, I believe, but I haven't been able to find one. When I do, I'll be sure to add it here.

Polaroid Type 88 square format film

This is what I came up with. It seemed the logical way to go and when we had the larger product folding box to work with, I could create a lot more tension with large black panels and much less type to position.

The guys in sales were almost apoplectic about the final box design. They wanted to write all over the box but Stan Calderwood went with my suggestion that in this case less is more, and we could stack product at point of purchase to make a dramatic presence among competitive product packages on which sales departments had plastered with photos, copy and bullets.