Tom was part of an in-house team at Kodak that asked a provocative question: What if Kodak used its own technology to launch the kind of product others were building on top of it?

In 2009, social media was evolving rapidly and Twitter was exploding. We pitched a photo-first social app rooted in Kodak’s DNA: beautiful, immediate, and built around iconic film aesthetics. Users could shoot, apply classic Kodak film looks (Tri-X, Kodachrome, Portra), and publish directly to a feed. 

To support the experience, we designed a next-generation Instamatic: part retro throwback, part modern content machine.

The camera would shoot directly to the social feed. A seamless, Kodak-crafted loop of capture, edit, share.

The Problem

We had the design. The prototype. The business case. The tech. The patents. But we lacked the organizational readiness.

Kodak’s internal structure was built for manufacturing and licensing, not fast‑moving digital products. The project couldn’t secure the momentum or protection it needed to launch.

Only a few months later, Instagram launched with a similar thesis. Kodak had the technology. Kodak had the brand. But Instagram had the freedom. What remained was the hardware–the new Instamatic. And though the dream of a Kodak-led photo‑first social app died, the Instamatic lives on.