Although I’ve been a designer for many years, I’ve never been interested in packaging design. Bores me rigid, for the most part. The designers that I’ve known who work in this field, have generally been very devoted to packaging of all types – toothpaste tubes, washing power boxes and so on.

But, having dabbled with film photography for a while, I’ve recently become interested in photographic film packaging designs. I suppose it’s all about interest and context.

I recently picked up a few older, no longer produced, camera films and I am increasingly appreciating the their designs. To some degree there’s a certain retro aspect to this. The iconic Kodak Kodachrome design, is not something that I would necessarily have even noticed a few years ago. If anything, I find the carton quite ugly (although the film tin itself is beautifully loud and startling. Perhaps the discontinuation of the product, adds to the mystique somewhat.

Similarly, some of the older and more obscure films have a certain charm. The minimalist designed Agfa film boxes, for example, are no longer produced, but evoke a sense of a time past.

And then there is the tactility of opening up the boxes and seeing how the films are packaged. Contemporary 35mm film comes packaged in familiar plastic canisters. Whereas, some of the older films are beautifully wrapped in paper or foil, sometimes a couple of layers, before being placed into their cartons.

Of course, despite having an artisan look and feel, compared to modern consumer products, these films were produced in the millions in factories and distributed around the world. But they come from an era where graphic design, in its original print form, really came into its own, as a communication medium.