As we head into the final 2 weeks of our Corinthian Festival, Ross thought he'd take a moment to share some information on the wide variety of photos and images regarding the products we've so enjoyed releasing from our Corinthian Product Development inventory.
We always get lots of feedback on Corinthian products and there's always loads of interest in the origin of items from the original Product Development Team in which Ross worked - and led - for a number of years.
To answer some questions, Ross has provided five bullet points help clarify some of the differences between the items you may have in your collection or see online.
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A GUIDE TO CORINTHIAN PHOTOS & NEGATIVES
1) PHOTO SIZE: Corinthian would develop product photos in all shapes and sizes depending on their use and who was developing the image. Standard football figure product photos were usually 6" x 4" with those being used for marketing 7" x 5" with some 10" x 8". There were no documented rules or guidelines to this within the Product Development department. Virtually all photos were in colour and any black and white photos are most likely scans or copies;
2) PHOTO QUALITY: You'll notice that the photo quality varies materially on the images. This is purely an image development issue which is no different to the quality differential on the painting of the figures, sticker placement on the blister packs or cutting of the collector cards. The highest quality images are those used for promotion, print or packaging purposes (3 Ps). It is fair to say that the quality of image produced from a Kodak negative (see David May) vs. Snappy Snaps negative (see David Hirst) is very different. One was a professional industry-based service and the other a retail public service;
3) PHOTO TYPE: There were 3 simple options here. Matte, Gloss and Digital. The type that was printed at Corinthian depended on cost and use. Matte was probably the standard particularly if the external photographer was developing the photos of Corinthian figures. Gloss was used for marketing and player images. Digital, which is the lowest grade, was used for internal use on Product Development Specification sheets and comms with the factory;
4) PHOTO BACK: We'll be really clear on this one, it's an absolute falsehood that all Corinthian original photos have Kodak backs. It is true that there are 3 commonly seen types of Kodak photo that have been most prevalently seen in the market and this is because there was such a high quantity of the 1996 - 1998 product photos printed as these were distributed to distributors, retailers, football clubs, newspapers / magazines etc.. As digitization evolved so did photography and image management in the product development process;
5) PHOTO SOURCE: You'll start to see some consistency now in that everything varied in the Corinthian Product Development Team depending on cost, use and user. As such so did the photo source as whilst most images were taken by the same contracted external photographers who would also send us back the negatives, there are examples where photos were internally taken and printed (such as at Toy Shows, Conventions etc...) and also used for the website as sometimes images would be taken, developed and scanned in the pre-digital era;
IMAGE DETAIL (TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT):
- Photo of Corinthian figures of Alan Shearer, Stuart Pearce and Tony Adams in unreleased England home kit. This is a 6" x 4" size gloss photo, developed with Kodak with a Kodak Royal back (origin 1995).
- Photo of Corinthian London Toy Show 1995 Wembley Stand. This is a 6" x 4" size matte photo, developed with Kodak with a Kodak Olympic back (origin 1995).
- Photo of David May Corinthian figure in Man Utd 1995-96 home kit. This is a 6" x 4" size gloss photo, developed with Kodak with a Kodak back (origin late 1995 / early 1996).
- Photo of Manchester United 1995-96 product range. This is a 7" x 5" size gloss photo, developed with Fuji Film with a FujiChrome back (origin late 1995 / early 1996).
- Photo of David Hirst 1994-95 Sheffield Wednesday master model. This a 6" x 4" size matte photo, developed with Snappy Snaps and printed internally at Corinthian on Digital Dry Photo Paper (origin 1995)
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To share more updates and product development stories with Corinthian collectors we'll be posting more blogs and myth busters each week. If you ever have any questions, DM us on our facebook page or email to jaqjnr@gmail.com