Who doesn’t cherish the nostalgic memories of the good ol’ Kodak camera and the camera roll that defined the late 1990s and early 2000s?
A single photo click was a precious memory etched on the roll, like a priced possession more than anything one owned. Fast-forward to the current era where you can virtually click thousands of pictures of a beautiful landscape or portrait of an attractive buddy. All that without even realizing, there are almost limitless possibilities as opposed to the yesteryears when a single click was the option you had to showcase your photography skills with cameras having film rolls!
A group of product designers have come up with a sleek new design for a thermal paper photo printer that’s inspired by the 35mm film roll. They call it the “Kodak Memory.”
The design (first spotted by Yanko Design) is part of a project by South Korean industrial design students Minsu Kim, Yeon Ju Do, and Sunjin Baek.
The Kodak Memory is cute memorabilia of those times a millennial would never ever forget in life. This smart accessory prints out photos in monochrome in the most cherished way one can think of.
The design of the Kodak Memory grayscale printer is such that it reminds me of the film coming out of the roll. Yes, once you connect this monochrome printing accessory with the phone, and hit the print button in the compatible app interface, the black and white photo comes out in this manner. Now, how amazing is that!
Rather than using instant photos or ink, both of which are pricey, the Kodak Memory uses cheap thermal paper — the kind that receipts are commonly printed on. A roll of thermal paper costs less than $50, so the black-and-white photos printed by this printer would be extremely economical.
The myFirst Camera Insta 2 is a camera already on the market that uses thermal paper, though that camera is designed specifically for children.
After loading a roll of thermal paper into the Kodak Memory, the user then connects to the printer using a special app on their smartphone. Photos imported into the app can be shared, downloaded, and printed via the printer.
The accessory charges via USB connection and once the thermal paper roll is finished, simply press the OPEN button to perform the quick swap. The meticulously designed printer comes in the classic Kodak Film roll hues and a black and white version too for the totally colorless overall theme. For sure, a nice accessory to have in the bag pack for passionate travelers who like to photograph life as it comes!
Loading new paper is done by pressing the “open” button on top and lifting the internal cartridge out of the printer.
The printer is recharged by plugging it into a power source via the USB connection.
The designers say they wanted the process of printing with the printer to look like a strip of 35mm film being pulled out of a roll.
As with any 3rd-party concept design of this sort, it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see it materialize into a real commercial product. But with Kodak licensing its brand for everything from Android tablets to Bitcoin miners in recent years, who knows? Perhaps someone will license this design and the Kodak brand name and turn this printer idea into a real device one day.
