Proud to Present: a rebrand for Topfoto, the UK's oldest picture archive
Topfoto is a remarkable historical picture archive and agency. Founded by John Topham in 1927, Topfoto holds one of the most significant privately owned photographic archives in Europe. Topfoto is an independent, family-owned business now in its third generation, with their ever-evolving archive remaining under the same guardianship for over a century.
Topfoto is the go-to historical picture archive and agency, supplying and licensing authentic, historically accurate images for reproduction in books, magazines, TV, online, on products and anywhere at all that requires visual content to make a story sing.
With a remit to collect the world’s stories, the team place equal focus on the preservation of existing images and continually welcoming new collections and photographers to the Topfoto family to capture history in the making. Now under the careful direction of Flora Smith, Topfoto is carving out a niche as a company of expertise, excellence and exclusivity.
Flora approached Ditto to rebrand this exceptional business, a task we were delighted to undertake.
On the cusp of celebrating the company’s centenary, it was vital to capture the essence of the heritage and depth of the archive - whilst reflecting a modern view, and the collective ambition and vigor of the team to continue evolving the way they work. We responded to this challenge by creating a visual identity which was both sharp yet unexpected; smart styling meets unexpected typography and characterful language to convey the personal element of the team whilst reflecting their expertise.
There’s something so incredibly evocative about the physicality of the archive - something which is almost impossible to appreciate unless you have the rare opportunity to see it for yourself. Since the archive itself - holding images which date back to the 1800’s - is the absolute cornerstone of Topfoto’s distinction, I felt it was of utmost importance to capture this as best we could.
Our good friend Michael at Saltwick jumped at the chance to visit the archive, and together we created a gorgeous library of images which tell the story of the Topfoto archive and the skill of the team. To bring it all to life, a short film provides a sense of what it is to vanish into the archive and be immersed amidst shelves and shelves of history.
“Ditto Creative came into our archive and brought a deeply refreshing blast of fresh thinking and talent to our 97 year old company. Professionalism, challenge and empathy mixed with good humour and flexibility. My only regret is not calling upon them sooner.”
Of course, a fresh identity and image library does little to advance a business without careful thought devoted to how the company’s communications might embrace this change in pace, and so we worked alongside the team to plan and devise their key comms as they prepared to unveil their brand.
This year promises big things for Topfoto. As we put the finishing flourishes on their rebrand, one of their exclusive image collections was featured in Dior’s latest campaign, and a few short days after our photoshoot the team found themselves in front of the camera again as a film crew descended upon the archive to create a documentary about the business. Working with Flora and her team has been an absolute highlight of the year so far, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
