Paul Rand - The Designer of the IBM Logo

[ripster]

Ever wonder about the origins of the IBM logo?


In this post I'll talk a bit about Paul Rand, IBM's design philosophy, Apple logo history, and see how Keyboard companies are doing in the design front. But first it's time to take...

The Apple "Think Different" test: CLICK THIS LINK
You have 5 minutes to type in the last name of all those people (the quiz will autofill in the name if correct).









Didn't do so hot? You're not alone. However if you got less than 10/20 you need to get out more. Notice that Paul Rand is dead last of recognized innovators. Let's fix that.



It started when I happened to pick up a IBM mug on Ebay. Researching the mug I got interested in the design and found a vintage T-shirt from some company event.

And well, one thing led to another.


The symbols are known as a Rebus. Paul Rand produced it for a IBM conference. Became so famous it is now at the Museum of Modern Art.


Now before IBM became a boring Service and Software company they were the hipster Google of the day. Instead of ping pong tables though it was white shirt and tie. Design was always a big part of IBM culture though. From Wikipedia:

Corporate Design Program

In the mid-1950s, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., was struck by how poorly IBM was handling corporate design. He hired design consultant Eliot Noyes to oversee the creation of a formal Corporate Design Program, and charged Noyes with creating a consistent, world class look and feel at IBM. Over the next two decades Noyes hired a host of influential architects, designers, and artists to design IBM products, structures, exhibits and graphics. The list of Noyes contacts includes such iconic figures as Eero Saarinen, Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, John Bolles, Paul Rand, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Calder.[39]

The evolution of the IBM logo:


is shown in this slideshow. Notice that Paul Rand designed the logo with a new font, City Medium, and later introduced the famous 8 stripe version you see today (although a few 13 stripers seem to have escaped into the wild on some System 360s).

Then the trick with a monster sized company like IBM is to drive common design elements throughout the product packaging and publications



He went on to design:



whoops!

Paul Rand was most closely associated with IBM but got to know Steve Jobs as part of another Logo design project. The NeXT computer.


Front page of the product brochure.

Back page


Jobs was so impressed by Paul Rand's work that he featured him in one of the "Think Different" ads.


And an interview he did about working with Paul Rand at NeXT



Logos tend to evolve. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Apple? Another interesting history.

Others, like author Sadie Plant of Zeroes and Ones, considers the Apple logo as homage to Alan Turning, the father of modern computing, who committed suicide using a cyanide-laced apple.

Or Microsoft?


Or Intel?

ugh - how bland - designed by committee look. Hey, I LIKED the dropped E.

Not IBM. Same Logo today.



How is the current state of affairs in the Keyboard world?

HHKB - Not all that happy looking. Plus I think NOODLES when I see it.


Realforce - Not bad but then I like Times New Roman


Filco - Still looks and sounds like a gas station


iRocks - iOwww! iStopit!


Unicomp - Ackkkk!!!


Paul Rand made a Classic Logo that fits a Classic Keyboard.


More on Paul Rand here

and a website devoted to his work done by fellow designer.

Lenovo used to ship a screensaver (link) with the Thinkpad with the Eye-Bee-M logo.

For Firefox there is a Persona here.



Most of the things in the picture of mugs/t-shirts/signs etc. I picked up on Ebay. However the T-shirt (with IBM logo on sleeve versus the older version without logo on sleeve), the hoody, the hat and finally a nifty little magnetic bookmark are all available from the IBM Logo Merchandise Store. Just CheckOut like you normally wood and designate yourself a "Business Partner". Tell IBM Paul Rand sent ya.

Fun pics from other Flickr users.




And finally, a BP Oil Spill Homage.

[HaaTa]

Awesome post, I learned something today. :)

[vils]

Originally Posted by HaaTa

Awesome post, I learned something today. :)

+1

[D-EJ915]

IBM's logo is timeless IMO, Apple's rainbow logo really was good as well. I'm partial to DIGITAL's as well lol.

[bigpook]

good work ripster. I had no idea.

[trievalot]

now i want more IBM stuff!

[Rajagra]

The striated effect of the IBM logo reflects how characters looked on early (low resolution) computer screens. Not sure if that was deliberate, but I bet it was an influence.

[ripster]

How come nobody is posting their "Think Different" scores.

I got 19/20 in 1:30. Spent 3:30 cussing the computer trying to get the stern looking woman.

[itlnstln]

I have to wait and take the test at home.

[ripster]

Good luck. Hint: No Rap stars in the Apple Campaign.



The agency on this campaign was Chiat Day, SF.

Somehow seems less relevant today.

[webwit]

Now only if I could find the time to finish my site :)

[itlnstln]

Your logo makes me want to go break out my Atari 2600. I like it, though, especially the colors.

[webwit]

You don't want to know how much thinking, work and money went into that design (it is by a Belgian designer). It basically gives a big middle finger to those 13 a dozen web 2.0 designs and tries to be one step ahead. Rounder corners is what I had last millennium, that's soooo old man.

[InSanCen]

Your design is mostly win webwit. Me likey.

The only thing that throws me is the "WW" logo's at the bottom. I think the second W is a bit... disjointed? It doesn't look like a W unless you think about it. I think it needs to be "bolder" (I'm not a designer as such, but I do some stuff for Family and Friends). Not sure I have the design vocabularly to express what I think.

[webwit]

I'm not too sure about the avatar myself. Maybe it's a bit too complex, all those dots. Second W could perhaps be a solid color. On the other hand it kinds of grows on you, and the iconic abstraction (and having to look closer to see it is 2 Ws) is by design. It is a similar trick as that raised E. Tricks of cognitive recognition. In other words, it makes you remember.