The history of Ford is a fascinating one. It is full of innovation, iconic cars and trucks, brilliant minds and first-place finishes. However, one thing that the early days of Ford doesn’t have is color – in pictures, that is. Many of the vintage pictures that were taken before the 1960s are stuck in black-and-white. Well, we think that’s a shame.
Using a little bit of Photoshop magic, we selected three images from the Ford photo archive to bring back to life in full living color with a colorization process. Seeing a few of these iconic images gives us a new appreciation for the Ford of days’ past, and a renewed excitement to see what the future will bring.
Photo 1: 1942 Ford Station Wagon at Ford Foundation
In 1942, Ford halted production of all consumer vehicles to begin production for vehicles used in World War II. But before it did, there were a short number of vehicles produced in 1942, including this gorgeous “woody” Station Wagon. In this picture, it is parked outside the Ford Foundation headquarters, which was at the located in Michigan.
Photo 2: This photo features a team of designers working on a clay model in 1957. The designers are working from initial sketches of the vehicle to create it at scale to make the final design refinements before they would move to prototype stage. This same process of molding clay is used by Ford’s designers today.
Photo 3: Development of Lincoln Advanced Body Styling in 1960s
Ford acquired Lincoln in 1922, and ever since it has acted as the luxury arm of Ford. Ford engineers and designers constantly strive to bring the best style and class to its vehicles, and that starts in the design lab. In this photo, we see two designers who are using a wooden model to shape the design of the iconic 1960s Lincoln models.
Bonus: To give you a peek behind the curtain of the colorization of these iconic photos from Ford’s history, we recorded the full process in Photoshop for your viewing pleasure.