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This chapter discusses the beginning of Eliot Noyes’ association with IBM. It initially presents a background of Noyes’ architectural work, noting his compound methods to design—a combination of traditional techniques and high modernism. Noyes was strongly influenced by Peter Behrens, a prominent member of Werkbund and pioneer of corporate design. Behrens’ ideologies were passed on to Noyes through his professor, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school and proponent of modern and industrial design. The chapter then discusses Noyes’ conception of “organic design”, which can be interpreted as the link between the characteristic of being organic and the harmonious organization of different parts. It also recounts Noyes’ and eventually Paul Rand’s involvement in the reinvention of the IBM graphics.

This introductory chapter presents a historical account of the evolution of IBM’s design program, beginning with President Thomas Watson Jr.’s hiring of industrial designer Eliot Noyes and tasking him with reinventing IBM’s corporate image. For Watson, corporate design was not just about establishing a good public image but a matter of effective management, which was what the company aimed to achieve. With this idea in mind, Noyes set out to design and manage IBM’s “new look”. The chapter also discusses the notion of the “interface,” which is defined as the link that connects man and machine; the book aims to outline IBM’s design program by means of its multiple interfaces in order to avoid an exhaustive description of system-building, and to prevent one from fixing its historical evolution into a sole perspective.

This chapter illustrates how Noyes presented IBM’s corporate identity as an organization available to a broader public by placing its products and activities in an exclusive yet visually accessible space. Noyes, together with Charles Eames and George Nelson, set out to address the problem of designing the interface between the company’s architectural presence and the consumers of its products and services. The chapter also examines the tools used by IBM to communicate the message of the undisputed technological, economic, social, and moral advantages of the computer. It shows how IBM required the help of architects, industrial engineers, and graphic artists to solve the issue of producing a mass market for computers.