“Clean. Less is More. Any idiot can cover a box with NEW! and grimacing faces of supposedly pleased customers. Apple hasn’t influenced enough decision makers. American managers come from business schools where they learn to count beans. They are terrified to make aesthetic decisions. A few came to Polaroid meetings with comments such as, “well, my wife likes blue.” Or worse, in 1958: “Ernst Dichter says black is a morbid color.” Well, as it turns out, DIchter the great guru of motivational fucking research, worked with Ford Motor on the Edsel.”
Paul Giambarba, the designer of the classic Polaroid branding and packaging, on today’s design aesthetic. This quote is from an interview conducted for my article on The Impossible Project and he was an absolute joy to correspond with. Sharp, funny and frank – pretty much the ideal interviewee. Read some fantastic stuff by him on the branding of Polaroid over at his site here.
