Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, West Germany, makes a family of 35mm cameras that are considered CLASSICS in terms of design. Around 1913, Oskar Barnack, a technician who worked for Leitz, developed a small camera that could use regular movie film. In 1924, a commercial version of the camera went on sale. Soon after, new versions with improvements like range-finder focusing, interchangeable lenses, and a full range of fast and slow shutter speeds were released.
The 1930s models F and G were the best examples of Leica’s design, based on the technical language of high-quality optical instruments like Leitz microscopes and strict adherence to the camera’s functional needs. Famous photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans liked the camera, and people knew it was technically excellent. This made it very popular, and a group of fans now collects early models. Leica has kept its high design quality in later models, such as the series M cameras made after World War II. Many cameras like the Leica, like the Contax made by ZEISS, were made to compete with it, but none were as famous as the Leica.
With the invention of the miniature single-lens reflex camera, the range-finder Leica type is no longer as popular as it once was. Even though Leitz has made several reflex models under the Leica name, many early Leicas are still in use because of how well they were made and worked.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
Product Design – Amazon
* This website may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
More Design Firms
-
Dansk International Designs: A Scandinavian Design Legacy
-
OMK Design and Rodney Kinsman RDI
OMK Design is a British design group. It was established in 1966 by Rodney Kinsman, Jerzy Olejnik, Bryan Morrison. They all trained at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. The group produced its furniture, including its 1969 T5 chair.Read More →
-
Experimental Acrylic Side Tables from Nortstudio
These side tables are the outcome of an acrylic resin experiment. Acrylic is a two-part substance made up of mineral powder and water-based acrylic resin.Read More →
-
A & E Design a Swedish Design Consultancy
A & E Design a Swedish design consultancy was founded in Stockholm by Tom Ahlström and Hans Ehrich (1942–). They worked in Italy earlier in the 1960s. The company has gained a reputation for functional, durable and ergonomically sound everyday products.Read More →
-
Kosta Boda Swedish glass manufacturer
Kosta Boda, for much of its early life, this famous Swedish glassmaking company’s production centred on drinking glasses, chandeliers, and window panes. However, in the late nineteenth century, with the employment of designers such as Alf Wallander and Gunnar Wennenberg, a more concerted design policy emerged, resulting in more fashionable, Art Nouveau-inspired products.Read More →
-
Philco famous 🇺🇸 American electronics firm
Philco was founded in Philadelphia in 1892. In 1929, using assembly-line techniques, the firm produced the first truly low-priced radios. The firm became a leading manufacturer of audio products, adding domestic stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other appliances to its line. In the 1950s, it produced a series of television set housings in historicist cabinets…
-
Frog Design: A Pioneer in Humanising the Artificial Environment
Frogdesign made a global impact in the 1980s by virtue of its products’ visual expressiveness and ergonomic success, traits that attracted an extensive and prestigious client listRead More →
-
Plateelbakkerij Ram (1921 – 1969) Arnhem-based Dutch Ceramics
Plateelbakkerij Ram (1921 – 1969) was an Arnhem-based Dutch ceramics company. Ram was founded in 1921 to produce high-quality ceramic bodies. At Ram 1921—25, Thomas A.C. Colenbrander was the designer for whom the company was established at the age of 80. Ram wares were sold at exhibition auctions as art rather than craft.Read More →
-
Kurt Thut (1931 – 2011) Swiss Designer and Manufacturer
Kurt Thut (b. 1931-2011) was born in Möriken, Switzerland. In his father’s workshop, while attending the School of Art and Design in Zurich, Thut improved his carpentry skills.Read More →
-
Knoll – American International Furniture Manufacturer
Knoll is an American and international furniture manufacturer. Background Knoll was established by Hans Knoll in 1938. Initially, the firmRead More →
-
La Danese Italian domestic goods manufacturer
La Danese was founded in Milan by Bruno Danese and Jacqueline Vodoz. The company specialised in editing, designing, and marketing well‐designed everyday products with a modern aesthetic. There were three significant focus areas: domestic and office products, artistic editions, and children’s games and creative play stimuli. Read More →
-
Flos Italian Lighting Manufacturer
-
Zanussi Italian manufacturer and design firm
Antonio Zanussi established the household appliance firm in Pordenone in 1916. It was initially a workshop for repairing stoves. His sons and Guido and Lino took over on his death in 1946, and under them, the firm began its rise. Read More →
-
International Silver Company (ISC) American Silversmiths
The International Silver Company was founded in 1898 by a group of independent silversmiths from New England. Ashbil Griswold, who established his pewter shop in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1808, is credited with starting the early records of this industry.Read More →
-
By Lassen – Danish architecture and furniture design
The Lassen brothers’ archive of architecture and furniture design represents the finest qualities of the Danish design tradition and deserves a wider audience.Read More →
-
Cheney Brothers (1838 – 1955) textile and silk manufactures
The Cheney Brothers were American textile manufacturers. They were located in Manchester and Hartford, Connecticut. Cheney Brothers’ achievement in becoming one of the leading silk manufacturers in the USA was based on the family’s business expertise and broad knowledge of technical processes.Read More →
-
De Ploeg Dutch Fabric Group
De Ploeg has been making and designing high-end upholstery and curtain fabrics since 1923, gaining international recognition for its innovative designs and high-quality fabrics.Read More →
-
Arteluce Italian Lighting Firm (1939)
Arteluce Italian Lighting Firm it was one of the modest businesses that contributed to Italian design’s international success in the 1950s. READ MORERead More →
-
AEG – German Lighting Firm – Est. 1883
Engineer Emil Rathenau founded AEG as the Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizitäts (DEG) two years after seeing Edison’s lighting at the Paris Exposition Internationale de l’Electricité in 1881.Read More →
-
Desny (1927 – 1933) French Design Firm
Desny was a Parisian lighting company founded in 1927 by designers Desnet and René Mauny and a business partner named Tricot. READ MORERead More →
-
Electrolux – Swedish domestic appliance firm
Electrolux was the first electrical appliance manufacturer to produce a horizontal-cylinder vacuum cleaner. Its flexible hose made it possible to clean in places other floor models could not reach. In 1924, the Electrolux vacuum cleaner was successfully introduced in the U.S. READ MORERead More →
-
Cassina Italian furniture manufacturer – Design Excellence
Its early pieces were based on historicist models from the 19th century. In the 1930s, it made armchairs and dining room sets for Milan’s Rinascente and Mobilificio di Fogliano. After World War II, Cassina changed the way it made and sold its products. The new generation of designers pushed the company to the forefront of…
-
Kurt Naef Spielzeug – Swiss Design firm – Unique Playthings
A typical Naef set is a box with geometric pieces made of wood and cut with great care. Each set has unique block shapes that make its possibilities different. Some of Kurt Naef’s sets were designed by Naef himself, but also by Peer Clahsen and Jo Niemeyer.Read More →
-
Krizia an Italian Fashion Design Firm
Krizia is an Italian fashion design company based in Milan. Their clothes often have fruit-themed prints on them to give them a fantasy feel. The company was started in 1954 by its designer, Mariucca Mandelli, and her husband Aldo Pinto.Read More →
-
Handel Company (1885 – 1936) American Lighting Company
American Lighting firm The Handel Company was founded in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1885 and created lamps and glass designs over the years. The business was incorporated in 1903.Read More →
-
Foscarini Italian Lighting Manufacturer
Foscarini has been manufacturing contemporary lighting from its headquarters in Venice since 1981. Their products add a stunning focal point and blend seamlessly with modern architecture. They earned a reputation as one of the most distinctive suppliers of lighting accessories worldwide thanks to their inventive, unconventional, and creative methods.Read More →
-
Arzberg Porcelain – prestigious German design
Arzberg is regarded as one of the most prestigious porcelain design houses in the world. The definition of good design. Arzberg combines aesthetics, functionality, and durability.Read More →
-
Studio Alchimia Italian design collaborative
Studio Alchimia Italian design collaborative located in Milan. Alessandro Guerriero (b. 1943), an architect, created Studio Alchimia in 1976 as a gallery to show experimental work that was not limited by industrial production. Read More →
-
Metalarte – Spanish lighting firm
-
Artifort Dutch furniture manufacturer
Artifort used freelance designers, including Kho Liang Le and Pierre Paulin. It produced chairs, settees, and tables. It first used plastics in Paulin’s 1965 Chair 582 in tensioned rubber and latex foam and his 1965-66 Armchair 303 in polyester fibreglass. It produced Paulin’s 1953 Chair 157 in polyester, ABS, and elastomers and 1967 F577 chair.…
-
Artemide Italian Lighting Company
Artemide Italian Lighting Company – Artemide is an Italian lighting and furniture manufacturer it is in located Pregnana Milanese. Read More →
-
Otto Zapf German product and furniture designer
Otto Zapf has created an essential system of furniture designs. Including the Zapf Office System by Knoll and 7500 workstations by Pacific Telesis. He and Dieter Rams designed their first furniture in the 1960s and 1970s.Read More →
-
Barbini Glasswork Italian Glass Manufacturers
Alfredo Barbini, a descendant of glassmakers from the early 15th century, studied at Abate Zanetti (design school at Murano glass museum) from age ten; in 1930, began studying at Cristalleria, Murano, becoming a maestro; became primo maestro at Martinuzzi and Zecchin; worked with Cenedese in the late 1940sRead More →
-
Louis Poulsen Danish Lighting Manufacturer
The company began manufacturing in the 1920s. Poul Henningsen’s well-known ceiling lamp for Poulsen was put in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat residence in Brno from 1929 to 1939.Read More →
-
Tecno Italian Furniture manufacturer
Tecno an innovative Italian furniture manufacturer was founded By Osvaldo Borsani and Fulgenzio Borsani. The operation had evolved from Atelier Varedo, the workshop of the father in Varedo, and the subsequent small firm Arredamento Borsani. Among other models, it produced Osvaldo Borsani. Among other models, it produced Osvaldo’ Borsani’s successful 1953 p40 chair and 1953…
-
Derby Silver Company an American Silversmith
Derby Silver Company was an American silversmith located in Derby, Connecticut. It was founded in 1873 and specialised in silverplatedRead More →
-
Fiskars – Oldest Industrial Company in Finland
Fiskars – Oldest Industrial Company in Finland. It was formed in 1649. Fiskars can be traced back to Peter Thorwéste’s ironworks. READ MORERead More →
-
Dino Gavina (1922 – 2007) Italian Furniture Entrepreneur
He founded the firm Gavina in Foligno in 1960 as a subsidiary of his Dino Gavina company. Architect-designer Carlo Scarpa was appointed its titular president. The designs of Franco Albini and the earlier 1920s models of Marcel Breuer were reproduced. Breuer’s 1928 B32 chair, renamed Cesca (after Breuer’s daughter Francesca), became highly successful in mass production…
-
WMF – Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (1853)
The outbreak of the Second World War created significant difficulties during the early stages of restoration, leading to the closure of the NKA (Contemporary Products Department), but by the early 1950s, the company was back on track. Many of Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s WMF creations date from these years. Read More →
-
Wolff Olins British Design Studio
Wolff Olins has offices in London, Madrid, Lisbon, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, and has been a leading British design agency for nearly four decades, with a special focus on corporate identity and branding. It is a subsidiary of Omnicom Group.Read More →
-
World Design Organization (WDO) – Design for a Better World
The World Design Organization (WDO) TM, formerly known as the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), is an international non-governmental organisation that promotes industrial design and its ability to create better products, systems, services, and experiences, as well as better business and industry, and, ultimately, a better environment and society.Read More →
-
Damon (1920s & 1930s) French lighting design firm
Damon was located at 4 avenue Pierre-I-de-Serbie in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. It was well-known for its innovative use of glass in lighting fixtures, with white glass designs that provided a dazzling effect without glare.Read More →
-
Beautifully Balanced Más Table Lamps – Korean Design
Studio Más, known for designing products and furniture that are simple yet unique, released their Lamp Más in 2018. Created especially for the 2018 Young Retro Seoul Design Festival, Lamp Más was inspired by analogical behaviour and retro-like colour and shape and designed to have a beautiful balance between the pull switch and the lamp…
-
B.d Ediciones de Diseño – Spanish furniture and design manufacture.
Oscar Tusquets, Lluis Clotet, Pep Bonet, Cristian Cirici, and Xavier Carulla, among others, founded B.d Ediciones de Disefio in 1972. Many of Tusquets’ furniture and product designs, as well as those of others at the time, were deemed too risky by other Spanish manufacturers.Read More →
-
Svenskt Tenn celebrated Swedish Design Company
This celebrated Swedish design company and store was launched in Stockholm in 1924 by designer and entrepreneur Estrid Ericson and pewter designer Nils Fougstedt and, through its long‐standing success in the export market, did much to promote Scandinavian design abroad. Read More →
-
Swarovski Austrian Glass Company
Swarovski is an Austrian glass manufacturer. Daniel Swarovski founded the company in 1895. In 1895, he left Bohemia for the Austrian Tyrol. He established a factory in Wattens for the industrial production of cut crystal stones. From 1917 on, these stones were marketed as ‘Tyrolite,’ which is now the company’s industrial division.Read More →
-
Akaba progressive Spanish Design Company
Akaba progressive Spanish Design Company founded on four fundamental principles: commitment to design, an international perspective, distinctive business identity and the establishment of new jobs.Read More →
-
Rookwood Pottery American ceramics manufacturer
Rookwood Pottery is an American ceramics manufacturer that is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Maria Longworth Nichols (1849-1932) attended the first china painting classes at the University of Cincinnati School of Design and Maria Eggers in 1874. Read More →
-
Saint-Gobain French glass and crystal manufacturer
Saint-Gobain is a French glass and crystal manufacturer that is located Chapelle St.-Mesmin. Saint-Gobain produced a basic glass design intended for picnics and sold throughout the world for general use. One of its more unique and widely published products was the 1937 illuminated glass radiator by Rene Coulon, who was instrumental in establishing the Institut…
-
Van Cleef et Arpels French Jeweller
Van Cleef et Arpels is a French Jeweller located in Paris. Brothers Julien, Louis, and Charles Arpels and brother-in-law Alfred Van Cleef transformed a small store on place Vendôme, Paris in 1904 or 1906 into Van Cleef et Arpels.Read More →
