IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design
Until the arrival of Elliot Noyes as IBM consulting director of design, IBM’s many office products were a confusion of styles: from 1930s-era punched card equipment—complete with steel Queen Anne legs—to room sized computers inflected with mid-century styling, festooned with tiny signal lamps. As IBM consolidated its various product lines in the early 1960s, most importantly with the 1964 System/360 mainframe, it also consolidated its corporate style: Noyes simplified IBM’s design vernacular to represent clean typography, a minimalist aesthetic, unified branding and office equipment and computers that were intuitive and easy to use. Along with the corporate overhaul by Noyes and his associates, husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames also worked closely with IBM to re-imagine the company for the 20th century. While Elliot Noyes was an industrial designer who focused on corporate design and branding, the Eameses were renowned for their contributions to furniture design, architecture, and multimedia productions.
Both the Eameses and Noyes shared a commitment to modernist design principles, including functionality, simplicity, and human-centered design. They believed in creating designs that were not only aesthetically pleasing but also practical and user-friendly.
