IBM
From a Design System to a Belief System
INTRO
As IBM’s Watson (the person, not the A.I. that won Jeopardy) used to say, “Good design is good business.” In fact, IBM used to roll deep with some of the biggest names in design—Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Paul Rand, Isamu Noguchi and Eliot Noyes, namely.
For a number of reasons, the company suffered a decades-long design dark age. But they’re getting back to their roots in a big way.
So, in September of 2017, Todd Simmons brought me in to help him pen a new IBM Design Philosophy and set of Design Principles. This belief system would communicate the company’s POV on design to the world, launching a new era for the IBM brand.
NBD, right?
A year and about 3,523,003,293 drafts later, Todd released his final draft. Perhaps my proudest contribution is that I convinced the team cut the number of design principles in half.
The Plex website and IBM Services rebrand (check out the slides below for some highlights) were two of the first concept tests of the new design philosophy and system, and were both projects I contributed to as writer.
IBM AS A GUIDE
Rethinking the IBM design philosophy was an opportunity to examine the brand’s place in the modern environment—and in modern culture.
At one time, IBM was synonymous with cutting-edge technology. It was an innovator, and it was seen as one. But, this image has eroded over the last few decades. Big time. Even with its heavy marketing of Watson and now Q (its quantum computer), IBM has struggled to move beyond the “Big Blue” era.
But, could there be a positive side to this?
Technology is a world full of newness, possibility, and excitement. But it’s also full of risk and volatility. IBM has lived through all the eras of computing—and has helped many of the world’s largest and most successful companies through them, too. We thought that, instead of fighting to catch up, IBM should own its role—as a guide.
The concept of “guide” became the key theme for the new design philosophy. We asked, “How can design facilitate progress? How can IBM help humanity and technology move forward together? What does a good guide do? How does it behave? What does it look like, sound like, feel like, smell like...From there, we developed design principles. These principles needed to be broad enough so anyone, from any discipline within IBM, could apply them to their work. But, they also needed to be practical enough to give clear direction.