Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937, built a world famous name by making instant film cameras from 1948, and announced in 2008 that it would cease production in favor of digital photography products.

But if you’re interested in branding and logos, the period that you want to know about is 1958 to 1977, when graphic artist, illustrator, and cartoonist Paul Giambara worked on Polaroid’s corporate image development and product identity. He made a blog on his branding years at Polaroid, and how they “beat Eastman Kodak and its little yellow boxes at point of purchase despite a clunky product and an irrelevant corporate name”.

His innovative black packaging successfully subdued the dominance of Kodak yellow at point-of-purchase and spawned a vogue of black packaging within the industry. Creator of the ubiquitous Polaroid color stripes, one of the most widely imitated design devices of the last several decades, he designed and produced hundreds of Polaroid packages and collateral material.

Very entertaining, and with LOTS of photos to illustrate the evolution of the the branding and the logo, all the way from the very beginning when there was none.

Another blogger got inspired and went through his own stuff, and posted a few interesting photos of Polaroid related stuff. And if you’re into the cameras of Polaroid, have a look at this small but neat collection, or simply browse Flickr for more…

Got any other Polaroid packaging / branding / logo site to recommend? Post them in the comments please.