Kodak
The evolution of an American icon, from its analog past into its digital future.

Kodak

The evolution of an American icon, from its analog past into its digital future.

Tasked with evolving the Kodak brand to reflect its shift from film to digital, from nostalgia to future, and in large part from consumer to business, the logo was updated and streamlined to signal the commitment to that shift. Though the logo cycled through redesign every few years, the idiosyncratic ‘a’ was always a consistent, if anomalous presence, so a version of that distinctive piece of visual vocabulary was preserved in this iteration.

Brand architecture was also streamlined while a more visually and conceptually rich symbol to complement the logo was also developed, intended to be used for consumer-facing products and applications. The multiple versions of the symbol shown below were each the leading choice at different points in the process, though ultimately the symbol was abandoned entirely for the singular, more efficient wordmark, to better reflect the realities of a soon-to-be restructured and downsized company focused primarily on imaging technology for businesses.

Consumer packaging and retail marketing were also designed for Kodak’s new digital cameras, employing a much richer, more complex visual language driven by the product attributes and technology, eschewing the nostalgia and Americana commonly associated with the brand.

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