It's hard to believe it's been five years since we launched Polaroid Originals and brought the OneStep2 to the world! It's been a busy half decade for us and I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved as a team. I like to think that throughout this time we've done our homework. We launched multiple affordable cameras, moved half our users to a type of camera that doesn't need a battery in the cassette, and created a new small format with the Go. We've made big progress in the stability, quality, and ease of use of our film. We've set a healthy foundation for the company to keep going. And during all of this we grew incredibly, from about 150 people in 2017, to well over 300 today.
I think it's important to put this in context. The Polaroid of the ‘70s we all know and love was twenty thousand people strong. Twenty thousand. We are 1.5% of that, and we are just at the start of this incredible chapter.
We have big ambitions for the future, and I want to tell you a little bit about them. Firstly, it's important to say that Instant Photography is our heart and soul, and we will never stop caring for it–in fact we have big plans to continue work on both the quality of our film, and the capabilities of our cameras.
But today, we have something completely new that we're incredibly excited to share: our first steps into the world of music.
Polaroid has always been at its best at the intersection of Art and Science, making products that inspire and empower the creativity in all of us. We talked a lot about where we could go next, and music kept popping up throughout our history - first with a sketch we found from the ‘70s, then with my first project at Impossible Project in 2012, trying (and failing) to put music on a Polaroid photo. Now we’re back with something beautiful in the space we can proudly show all of you - Polaroid Music.
1. Polaroid Players: four beautiful Bluetooth speakers powered by a unique UX and a dedicated Polaroid Music app, prioritizing hands-on interaction and minimizing phone usage.
2. Polaroid Radio: a new kind of experimental music platform - five FM-like, artist curated, free, (and ad-free!) sonic worlds.
These are our first steps. We'll work hard to continue evolving them, adding features as we go, and listening to feedback. We're new in the music world but intend to learn quickly and bring as much color and freshness to the space as we can. I hope you love Music In Full Color as much as we do!
We are working hard on something new in the instant world too. An instant camera that can rival the titans of the ‘70s and ‘80s in terms of picture quality. A new camera for i-Type film that I've been dreaming of since 2016. I can't tell you more yet, but it's coming next year!!!
About Polaroid
Polaroid was founded by Edwin Land in 1937 as an icon of innovation and engineering. The company first produced ski goggles and 3D glasses for the US Army and Navy. It wasn’t until 1943 when Land’s daughter asked why she couldn’t see a photograph of herself immediately that the idea for the instant camera was born. In 1947 it became a reality with the first ever instant camera.
It was the introduction of the breakthrough Polaroid SX-70 camera in 1972 that launched instant photography.
As we know it today, followed by landmark innovations such as the original OneStep, instant color film; and the Polaroid 600 and Spectra cameras and film formats.
Polaroid cameras went on to inspire artists such as Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Maripol, Keith Haring, and Guy Bourdin who raised the brand to the status of a cultural icon.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the swift rise of digital technology eclipsed instant photography and Polaroid announced the end of instant film production in 2008. But that was short-lived; a dedicated group of instant photography fans under the name ‘The Impossible Project’ saved the last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. Since then, they have been the only people in the world making film for vintage Polaroid cameras.
In 2017, The Impossible Project re-launched as Polaroid Originals: a brand dedicated exclusively to Polaroid’s original analog instant photography products. Bringing analog instant photography back under the Polaroid umbrella was a significant milestone, but it was not the end of the journey. In March 2020, Polaroid took the next step and became one brand, with the one name: Polaroid.
Today, Polaroid has analog instant photography at its core and represents the brand that people all over the world came to know and love for over 80 years. By unifying its entire product portfolio under one name, Polaroid is setting out its new vision as a global brand that will continue to create products that bring people together in human and meaningful ways.
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