Polaroid Sunglasses (International) as a flag for product identity, 1962

We have to fast-forward a few years to 1962 to illustrate the development of the ubiquitous Polaroid color stripes that were introduced with the debut of Polaroid color film. These are the color stripes you see in the header, above left, and below in the Polaroid Iconongraphy graphic. But let me not get ahead of myself. I would like to concentrate on this particular assignment because I have always thought it one of my best solutions for a product identity flag, so to speak. It's also one of the simplest and as any designer will tell you, they are the most difficult to do.

This is the prototype for a counter card. The type was eventually changed to News Gothic from the bold version seen here. The same is true for the dealer decal and product hang tag, below.

This design was so strong as product identity that it eventually became almost generic as a flag or symbol for sunglasses throughout Europe and elsewhere in the world, except for the USA and Canada where Polaroid had licensing deals with RayBan, Foster Grant, and other manufacturers of sunglasses.