Kodak (2016)Copied

The Kodak K was drawn by Peter J. Oestreich and adopted in 1971. WIRED described its two arms as beams of light, pouring into a viewfinder or out onto a screen, "a mark with meaning hidden in plain sight." In 2006, in an attempt to modernise, Kodak replaced it with a plain red lowercase wordmark from Ogilvy & Mather. Six years later it filed for bankruptcy.

Under new leadership, Kodak asked the New York studio Work-Order to bring the symbol back. According to WIRED, the company never even sent a brief beyond going back to the K. "We said, ‘fantastic,’ because we would see no other way than to take it back to this symbol," said Work-Order partner Keira Alexandra. "It’s such a valuable asset, it would seem fruitless to begin again."

The original proportions of the K and its rounded rectangle were kept. What changed was the name. Kodak had always been set in lowercase; Work-Order switched to bold capitals and stacked them vertically, which it said is "reminiscent of film perforations and street signage" and lets the logo act "as a manufacturer’s stamp: the logo is the first read and the name is the supporting mark." At small sizes the name is simply dropped.

There was no big launch. Work-Order describes an organic roll-out using available resources, with the K appearing in brand materials over six to eight months "as a hint of things to come" before the full system arrived, built on Kodak's yellow. It's Nice That put Kodak alongside Co-op and NatWest in a wave of brands going back to their vintage identities.

On X the news mostly travelled as a simple fact. ParallaxPhotographic wrote: “Kodak have rebranded and the "K" is back.” That is probably the best review a returning logo can get.