In 1956, IBM tappedthe industrial designer and architect Eliot F. Noyes to reinvent the company'scorporate image, from stationery and curtains to typewriters and computers tolaboratory and administration buildings. IBM would go on to assemble a cast ofleading figures in American design, including Charles Eames, Paul Rand, GeorgeNelson, and Edgar Kaufmann Jr., who transformed the relationships betweendesign, computer science, and corporate culture. The Interface is the firstcritical history of the industrial design of the computer and an invaluableperspective on the computer and corporate cultures of today.
Table of Contents:
"Contents
Introduction: The Interface
1. Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand, and the Beginnings of the IBM Design Program
2. The Architecture of the Computer
3. IBM Architecture: The Multinational Counterenvironment
4. Naturalizing the Computer: IBM Spectacles
Conclusion: Virtual Paradoxes
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
"
About the Author :
John Harwood is associate professor of architecture in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.
Review :
"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 couldn’t help being brilliant, given the extraordinary richness and depth of the design team Noyes assembled-a richness never equaled in design history-with 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
"
