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Awards
IDEA Bronze
SprintScan 120 Film Scanner
Presentation Magazine’s Standing Ovation Award
SprintScan 120 Film Scanner
Defining the Big Picture
When Polaroid was still thriving, Altitude helped the imaging company rethink two of its four primary markets: mainstream consumers and professional users. After studying the particular needs and interests of these two groups, we established signature elements in a universal design language and generated concepts for potential products. The professional products became “real,” contributing success to the commercial business, as one of the few moneymakers for Polaroid during a turbulent period in its corporate history.
Envisioning the Future
When Polaroid asked Altitude to study its general-use and professional consumers, we created in-depth persona descriptions and studied the visual design language most likely to appeal to these two groups. We created a special room in Polaroid’s headquarters to present the new brand vision through products, packaging, and concepts as they were developed. The environment included special lighting, floor-projected presentations, comfortable seating, and upbeat music. The “New Polaroid,” as it was named, became a central location to evaluating the brand positioning of ongoing programs and to help demonstrate the company’s vision to employees, customers, and visitors. It was a source of inspiration, becoming a key destination on any tour of the facility. Polaroid's CEO and fellow board members frequently stopped in for cappuccino and conversation.
Delivering Value: The Power to Create
Polaroid 'gave people the tools to create' across a broad spectrum. A Polaroid product could generate an image for an audience of one or an audience of millions. There were products for people of every capability level, from young children to veteran professional photographers. To convey the message of creativity and to provide cohesion among product lines, each product shared three distinct features. First, a signature mark of intersecting circles, a variation of the creation symbol, clearly identified Polaroid even from a distance the way the grill of a car communicates its brand. This became the lens for all product variations across all business segments. Second, a boldly outlined “do-it” button announced the simplicity and instantaneity of Polaroid products. The look of the button was echoed in the design of the “media slot,” the zone where the finished photograph or image presents itself. This third element featured vivid outline in the shape of a racetrack.
All of the product concepts we developed for Polaroid conveyed the same four attributes: coolness, spontaneity, confidence, and authority. For the consumer product line, we envisioned an extension of Polaroid's phenomenally successful IZone brand that would appeal to a new target demographic: the tech-savvy user. To match this market’s sophistication, we created a “re-mix” of the IZone, a melding of digital CCD camera and Polaroid’s instant film platform for “on-demand” digital printing.
The commercial market was a particularly exciting opportunity for Polaroid, having been overlooked for many years. The company’s professional products had become undifferentiated from its competitors and held little appeal for their target audience. It was time to reconnect. We determined that imaging professionals wanted simple, bold and rugged products that commanded authority. We designed a whole family of products using the same design language: strong lines, purposeful forms, die-cast housings, and exposed fasteners reminiscent of a Hasselblad or a Roliflex. Products included a camera back, lens, printer, and camera.
The SprintScan, one of the most successful of the products that we designed for the professional market, provides high-resolution scans of all transparent film media up to 6 x 9 cm. It has a friendly yet professional appearance. Few of Polaroid’s competitors offered medium-format scanning, giving the SprintScan an edge that significantly increased Polaroid’s share of the professional photography and imaging segment.
Our fundamental approach to design was so effective that Polaroid asked us to apply it to a product from the kids’ product line. Our sophisticated, customizable Convertible Camera was an instant hit with teens, its target demographic. They loved the way their cameras could express their individuality. The company loved how the interchangeable faceplates enabled it to introduce the Convertible Camera to markets around the world with minimal readjustments. In fact, the camera became a phenomenon in Japan. It was the best-selling camera there for three consecutive years.
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