This work traces the history of photography from its invention in 1827 to its contemporary uses, through the collections of the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, which comprise four million photographs, 8,000 cameras, and 30,000 magazines and technical or illustrated books. Off the beaten path, it presents an “alternative history” of photography, focusing on the richness of the medium in the diversity of its techniques, artistic movements, and modes of dissemination. It documents the social, documentary, and commercial dimensions of photography from its origins. Deliberately heterogeneous and quasi-encyclopedic, it bears witness to the many paths taken by photography.

The design of this publication, published by Éditions Textuel, was entrusted to the French graphic designer Le Petit Didier. He chose the typeface Garaje (with Garaje Mono, by Thomas Huot-Marchand, 205TF) for headings and subheadings, and the typeface Portada Text (José Scaglione and Veronika Burian, TypeTogether) for body text and captions.

This poster is part of the ongoing poster series about the NBA. It is a personal visual investigation about the slang and expressions by the NBA commentators.

“Click-click, welcome to your Kodak-Moment my friend” is the expression used by the former Indiana Pacer NBA player (and now NBA commentator) Reggie Miller. And it is what Reggie said during the incredible performance and iconic dunk of the Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade in 2009.

I like the SoLow typeface because it can show both expressivity and technicality. Its aesthetic resumes a time of the past that we remember as nostalgic and far away. A time of transition between analogic and digital, films and sensors, prints and screens. To give a swing of modern taste, I used Right Grotesk in its Narrow Dark style for the smaller text.

Kodak moment, D-Wade,

NBA Series, 2021

Design of a calligram for the podcast dedicated to the book Una peripecia fotográfica por España / A Photographic Scramble through Spain by Charles Clifford.

Translated by María Luisa Balseiro and published by Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ediciones Universidad de Granada, and the Hispanic Society of America, the book reproduces countless images captured by British photographer Charles Clifford in the first half of the 19th century. Originally published as a 48-page booklet about 1862, Clifford conceived what basically is the first photobook in Spain.

Filmotype Puritan and Optima in use for an ad for the Konica Auto S. According to camera-wiki.org, this model “is a 35mm coupled rangefinder camera of fairly conventional fixed-lens design made by Konishiroku in 1963. It is the first from Konishiroku to offer auto exposure (shutter preferred) and to have a CdS cell metering system.”

you want:
a camera with a Fully Automatic CdS Electric Eye with dual ranges for the dimmest indoor or brightest outdoor light. Complete Versatility that lets you read the “numbers” you can set manually when desired. Famous Hexanon f1.9 Lens that assures professional quality, outstanding sharpness every shot. Automatic Framing that shows exactly what the picture will be …no more, no less.
… and you don’t want to spend over $100 to get it!

you want KONICA Auto-S

The recent redesign of designer Scott Kellum's personal website goes full monospaced, combining both styles of Nostra (Sett and Stream) with Rüdiger's unmistakable Arnold.
The typography plays a particularly central role in the dedicated photography page, where its generous size, together with the reduced palette of black, white and red(s), complements Kellum's sensible and often atmospheric pictures.

The Pleaser II Kodamatic is an instant camera by Kodak, introduced in 1982 as a successor to the Pleaser. It’s operated with HS144 film and was produced until 1985. The Pleaser II logo is based on the “Love” weight of True Critt, a Headliners original designed by Critt Graham in 1970.

The Pleaser Trimprint (1984–1986) is a related model that also uses True Critt for the logo.

Spotted at Zaborski Emporium

The Pleaser is an instant camera by Kodak, launched in 1977 as a premium version of the Handle (also known as EK2), with electronic exposure. It’s fed PR10 (PR144) film and stayed on the market until 1982 when it was superseded by the Pleaser II.

The logo uses Burko Super Duper, the second heaviest weight from David L. Burke’s geometric sans distributed by Headliners. The rainbow-colored version on the box and the manual cover is a match in all letterform details. On the camera itself, the silver logo features a more compact form for s, which might have been an alternate included in the film font, or a customization.

A typical use of Crayonette for titling, combined with Plymouth featuring several of its fancy alternates. “Send for Catalogue” appears to be in Bookman (see also its precursor Old Style Antique No. 7).

This ad from the early 1900s by Rochester-based Gundlach Optical Co. showcases the accomplishments of their Korona Long Focus Cycle Camera and the Turner-Reich Convertible Anastigmat Lens. The exemplary photograph depicts a street scene in Rochester, New York, with the General E.S. Otis Arch in the center.

Mauella (@mauellaaaa) is a high-end print lab based in the fields of Valencia, Spain. They offer analog hand prints of the highest quality and provide a rental service for 16mm cameras around Europe. Two series of three promotional posters each were designed by Pénélope Delaur (@pepefolio) to communicate on both the rental and print services provided by the lab.

The book The New Woman Behind The Camera serves as a catalogue for the eponymous exhibition, organized by the National Gallery of Art Washington, in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It provides “an in-depth look at the many ways women around the world helped shape modern photography from the 1920s to the 1950s as they captured images of a radically changing world.”

Designed by Margaret Bauer, the book is completely typeset in various weights of Oli Grotesk. Oli’s mix of 20th century grotesk style and typewriter type details fits this book's content perfectly.

A-side “Handsome Johnny” was originally released in 1966 by Richie Havens. This single was reissued in 1970 after Woodstock's success. This cover is was for the French re-release.

The artist’s name is probably a hand-lettered variation of Seymour Chwast’s Art Tone Black Bottom (like Boot Black, but with closed apertures at the bottom). Titles are set in Folio eng (see Folio Condensed), which was available from Mecanorma as Folio-Caravelle Bold Extra Condensed. The condensed sans used for “comme à woodstock” (which roughly translates to “as played at Woodstock”) is unidentified. The information on the back is set in three styles from Egizio.

ISO was originally made as a custom typeface to use in EXIF.co, a new tool for photographers to protect their work online. It was inspired by old cameras, specifically Leicas. They have this really warm, slightly goofy, and tactile engraved text all over. We were also looking at film negatives for the EXIF.co brand, so we started to push this into a more mechanical sans.

The choice to go with a monospace was partly influenced by this, but it was also practical. We needed to calculate the length of user names in the watermark. Having a set width for all glyphs makes that much simpler.

We paired ISO with Calibre (Black) for the headers to give it a nice powerful contrast.

35-FTR was custom drawn specifically for the book Analogue Photography which required the timeless elegance of Futura and the compact utilitarian typesetting of Helvetica. It combines the best of both with the foundation of a geometric sans but the proportions and rhythm of the Swiss classic.

Inspired by the aesthetic of vintage user manuals, this book is a beautifully-designed reference guide for everyone interested in film photography. It is the first book to reestablish the principles of this art form for a new generation, and will play an important role in redefining analogue photography for today’s professionals and enthusiasts. Published by Vetro Editions.

Ad for Hoh & Hahne in Leipzig, specialist for photography supplies, 1900

Instax is a brand of instant cameras and associated films and printers marketed by Fujifilm since the late 1990s. The logo as seen in advertising, packaging as well as on the devices themselves has used — a squooshed and slightly modified — Keedy Sans ever since, a typeface that, in the words of its designer Jeffery Keedy, “is self-consciously crude and anti-aesthetic in reaction to the slickness of Modernism”.

Initially regarded as “too weird to be very useful” when released in 1991, Keedy Sans soon was “starting to be a popular typeface for music and youth-oriented audiences. Its popularity slowly but consistently grew; by 1995 it was starting to look pretty legible and tame compared to other new typefaces on the market. Eventually even the big boys in the corporate world were no longer put off by my typographic antics, and Keedy Sans made its way into the mainstream world of corporate commercialism by 1997.” Instax was introduced around 1998.

Hat tip to Connor Davenport.

Instax Mini 10 manual (detail), November 1998

Raised logo on the Instax Mini 25 (2009). The dots in “mini” are integrated into the x-height to enable a more compact setting.

The Instax Mini 8 is the current entry-level model and comes in various bright colors. In the newer models, “mini” and other suffixes are no longer rendered in Keedy Sans.

The high-end Instax Mini 90 (2013) is the latest addition to the Mini range.

The Instax Wide 300 was introduced in Spring 2015.

“Ready.Aim.Flash. Introducing the Kodak Ektralite 10 camera. With built-in flash.” — Ebony magazine, October 1978.

Full page adverts for Kodak’s Ektralite 10 camera, featuring actor Michael Landon.

“Ready in a flash!” — Ebony magazine, May 1979.

“New, ready-in-a-flash cameras from Kodak.” — Ebony magazine, November 1979

“When I say this pocket camera is ready in a flash, I mean ready in a flash!” — Ebony magazine, May 1980.

“A Very Gifted Camera” — Boys’ Life magazine, November 1981.

Venus Extended

This portfolio from Bauer Alphabets Inc. (the U.S. arm of Bauersche Gießerei) contains about 30 sheets showing examples of Bauer types in use. The publish date is unknown, but the style of the design, the imagery, and the release dates of the typefaces shown indicate mid 1950s.

Horizon (Imprimatur in Germany)

Bauer Topic (Steile Futura in Germany)

Bernhard Cursive (Bernhard Schönschrift in Germany) and Bauer Bodoni

Elizabeth and Weiss (Weiß-Antiqua in Germany)

Hellenic Wide and Venus Extended. The Leica M-3 was introduced in 1954, and these ads appeared as early as 1955, indicating that this specimen must have come sometime after.

Cartoon (Fresko in Germany) and Futura

Corvinus and Stradivarius (Symphonie in Germany)

Trafton Script (Quick in Germany) and Weiß

“Entry form. Win a unique Can Camera.”

Holland 1980: 1,500 Coca-Cola Can Cameras to be won

PF DIN Text is used for GoPro’s website and corporate identity. GoPro is renowned for its high-definition cameras for extreme action videography and photography.

German ad for a photo shop in Stockholm, Sweden, 1914. The depicted camera is by Ernemann A.-G., Dresden — a forerunner of Zeiss Ikon.

The condensed typeface with reversed contrast is Berthold’s Herold (1901–7). Note the use of two different forms for ‘g’ in “Fotografiska Magasin”.

The bold wide Roman with blunt serifs looks a lot like Windsor (Stephenson Blake, 1903) — especially with the splayed arch of ‘n’ — but it actually is Breite Kolonial (c. 1906). Kolonial is Wilhelm Woellmer’s version of Post Oldstyle Roman No. 2 (ATF, 1901). Woellmer released the regular weight in 1904 and added five more styles until c. 1911 [Hans Reichardt]. The shaded style, Schraffierte Kolonial (1906), is based on Curtis Post, which “was produced by ATF in 1902 for the Saturday Evening Post magazine of Curtis Publishing Company, but soon released to printers in general” [Mac McGrew via Luc Devroye]. Post Oldstyle Roman No. 2/Kolonial was also available from several other typefoundries, including the Lettergieterij Amsterdam (as Columbia) and the H.C. Hansen Foundry of Boston (as Buffalo) [Jaspert]. Digital interpretations include Saturday Morning Toast by Nick Curtis and the hatched 1906 Fantasio by GLC.

See more such ads in Altpapiersammler’s Flickr stream.