The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 19451976

(Paperback)

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In 1956, IBM tapped the industrial designer and architect Eliot F. Noyes to reinvent the company's corporate image, from stationery and curtains to typewriters and computers to laboratory and administration buildings. IBM would go on to assemble a cast of leading figures in American design, including Charles Eames, Paul Rand, George Nelson, and Edgar Kaufmann Jr., who transformed the relationships between design, computer science, and corporate culture. The Interface is the first critical history of the industrial design of the computer and an invaluable perspective on the computer and corporate cultures of today.

Reviews

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In this fascinating book, John Harwood shows clearly and convincingly how architects and industrial design consultants calculatedly worked with IBM to shape the public image of the corporation and its products. The Interface is eye-opening.
Henry Petroski, Duke University, author of The Pencil and The Essential Engineer

This is not only a brilliant but a necessary book: design is the future of computing; the IBM design team run by Eliot Noyes was the most important in commercial history, and helped shape not only the industry but the modern world. The book almost couldnt help being brilliant, given the extraordinary richness and depth of the design team Noyes assembleda richness never equaled in design historywith Saarinen and Roche, Paul Rand and the Eames Studio plus Noyes himself contributing everything from architecture and graphics to industrial and machine design, films and museum exhibits. Anyone who cares about modern computing, modern design or the future of technology needs this book.
David Gelernter, Yale University

Author Bio

John Harwood is associate professor of architecture in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.