Chapter Six INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES In 1056, after building the Country Club Hoad house, Noyes moved his office, Eliot Noyes & Associates, from Stamford to New Canaan. Employee Allan MeCroskery recalled that it initially consisted of the two top floors in a small building next to the town’s fire station, and thet Philip Johnson had an office next door. When he started loyes already had three architects who had been his students at Yale ‘working with him: Chuck Baffo, Arthur DeSalvo and John Black Lee. ‘at one point, NeCroskery continued, ‘there were four or five architects and mysolf and some other designers like John Bruce.” Im the early days, as his business grew, Noyes was constantly juggling additional office space in New Canaan: the clients that both ke and Jenson served ‘meant that this tiny, countrified, dormitory town was becoming one of the world's design and architectural zeniths, Tn his article about Noyes in Fortune, Walter Mcquade described the studio as the ‘headquarters of one of the most productive industrial designers in the world"? Soon, both departments within the office expanded steadily, but with some vicissitudes that required Moyes to be flexible and rent space in various buildings all over town, According to Sandy Garsson, designers always seemed to be walking from one building to the next and having impromptu mestings in the street. She also recalled that, im 1065, “They didn’t really have a desk for me but they had a rickety wooden one with wheels, one of those Kittle desks with the sides that ip up. They had a big old Model 5 typewriter on that and an Zames shell chair with the New York Yellow Pagee in the seat as a cushion for the chair? Not only was the business complex, but managing this was becoming complex in itself. Noyes, nevertheless, was always in control, Now Canean’s afiuence increased as the population of corporate executives ‘who commuted to New York City grew, and its little railway station wes sometimes referred to, jokingly or arrogantly depending on your perspective, as the ‘station next to heaven’. Even though this kind of New England snobbery ran against Molly's and Eliot's grain, the town was in many ways the perfect site for their home and office, Eventually, when the practice became more established, people like Charles Bames, Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermayafl, who were central to Noyes' corporate programmes, made the easy commute out of New York to attend meetings, and sometimes have a meal at the house or in Paul Rand's case, he made the short drive from his neighbouring town in Weston, Connecticut. Even chief executive officers like Tom Watson Jr from IBM, Najesb Halaby from Pan Am and Rawleigh Warner Jr from Mobil visited Noyes’ office from time to time. He realized that the location of his business was all-important because his success with the programmes was dependent on his accessibility to top people, Garsson said, ‘Rawleigh Warner would come in ‘here in his torn eneakers and his dirty raincoat. I used to warn whoever was on the mnt desk in case some guy comes in here looking kind of seruffy."* In July 1963 an article in Architectural Forum, ‘Now Design Offices from an Old Store’, highlighted the newly converted architecture and design office:139 Intomnaviona Sue ‘the trim, apacious reception area shown at left vas once the bustling center aiéle of Sillinan’s hardvare store, a venerable Yankee emporium serving the Tawn and household neede of suburban New Canaan, Conn. When the store abandoned its building for more modern quartere and parking @ blook avay, Avchitect-Designer Bi the chance to pick up some unusual working space for kis own rapidly growing firm, now 26 in staff. Noyes, who has a fondneee for archaeology (hie own early water aclove of Persepolie friesce now hang in the waiting room), jokingly likens his new home to the Palasso Pietro Massimi in Rome, another corner but Noyes @ ting of some presence and proportion.t Garsson seid, ‘ht 05 Main Street, we were the envy of every other design office in ‘town; the only place that anybody had elbow room. Other people didn’t like their architects to visit us."’ MoGroskery recalled that, ‘Whe! to visit."* Noyes was friendly with Lord Snowdon, the princess's husband, and while on a trip to the United States the royal couple had planned to visit the new office at 8 Main Street. As they drove through New Canaan, with people waving at th procession of cars, they surprised everybody by passing the office and heading for the Noyes’ house on Country Club Road. Molly remembers hastily children by phone and telling them to clean up the house, just minutes before the unexpected arrivel of the royal guests. Noyes’ business personality was centred on the principles of hard work and trust, based on his Protestant work ethic and respect for the value of money, even though there were some periods of considerable difficulty keeping the business in the black. He imposed a strict discipline for the accurate accounting of monetary expenditures for all his clients. No time and a half was charged. His clients were charged straight time - even for overtime on holidays ~ except in extreme emerg- encies that were the result of a request by the client. This created @ sense of trust ‘we moved in is when Princess Margaret came calling their and respect, principles that were expressed in good design. In 1060, Ursula Mcliugh wrote in Industrial Deeign, ‘His stern sense of 4s Tegendary among his employees, and the only anger any of them can remember seeing him display has been generated by what he considered bad professional othics but what they considered sim ‘business mort good business.”? ‘The open-minded atmosphere and approach in the office soon became legend- ary. When design problems cropped up, the discussion about how turned into an impromptu design review. loyes would always invite to solve them often 1 designers and architects for their opinions. The problem may have been as simple as what colour to select for a small button on a dictation machine, or as complex as integrating multiple components for en A-300 Airbus aircraft interior. nevertheless, the key issues were always about how well the idea worked for people, how clearly it ‘was communicated and how appropriate it was to the spirit of the design. Garson commented on the benefit of working in an office that offered continuous learning opportunities. (Moyea) wae interested in 20 many different things. Working for the office wae, for me, the equivalent of a liberal arts education . Going to that office140 Bit Noyes lft at is ofice, with partner Arthur De Salvo andl: farontect, New Car appoars inthe Foreground taught me how to see, how to look at things, to notios things that I notice aublinénatly but never paid attention to before.%? The combination of Noyes" ability to select the best of the best designers and architects to be part of his toam - the office attracted peop! ‘rid, including Japen, South america, Germany and Switzerland ~ and his everall guidance as the curator of design mesnt the performance of his office rounded our his approach to the business of designing products and architecture, It continued to grow, but in a special way. Noyes spoke of the special merging of disciplines under one roof that was s common trait in Europe even in those days. In the United States, there ta, as far as I know, only one, my own - and this came about through special ctreumstances. In any cage, I am an active practitioner of both professions, and a member of both the ASID [anerican Soctety of Industrial Designers] and AA [émertean Institute of avehitecta]. the office gonsiste of about a dozen architects and an equal amount of designere — 1 have no one whose tratning vas architectural working for me 28 an industrial deetgner, though this switch often happens, and appeare to be fully posettle. Tt does not seem aa possible for those trained in industrial design to become arehitects without further trai pattern falls as one would expect - buildings to architects, products to the destgnere, We have forces at vork, however, which make for a great deal of interrelationship between these departments ~ In this way they envich each other simply through exposure to 2 different eet of experiences.* \ing. In generat the work ‘The ability of both disciplines to grasp a concept and so attain excellence was not only something he was proud of in his own office; he wanted to see others achieve the same in order to advance design and architecture, He continued, ‘Finelly, I think our arch: ‘another. 1 would like to see students in each profession receive specific training in the other's field while at school. I hope also that there may in the future be much more contact and understanding between these professions which have so cts and designers are immensely enriched by exposure to one much in common."?? Im the early years, Noyes’ $400 (£500) retainer with IBM, the residential ‘houses he was designing, and his writing, speaking, curatorial end teaching activities kept him precccupied. Tom Geismar commented on Noyes’ commitment to all he did. ‘Eliot was always willing to put in the effort to make whatever it was ‘happen, He travelled all the time, He really was tireless, going out and meeting with people, Somehiow, he made the office work .. Every two weeks he would be back looking at whet everyone was doing, and he'd make some comments and then he would be off again." Similarly, the kind of work the office was producing was varied and flexible After some design projects for IBM, and good press coverage, smaller local companies begat to search him out, His office's work for Perkin-Elmer, manufacturers of analytical and scientific instruments, Veeder-Root who made ‘ing, makers of bearing and industrial cl pump gauges, Torrington Manufactuios that had not seen Noyes’ kin xy recalled his first days in e in the early 19506 b corporate consulting businesses: door elocke for IRM, I guess I did that the fivet Job I had wae designing o work on John Hereey’s ime, they were doi A that eo I did that for about a month, In the m Then a big house, the writer. They needed some he Job came in from IBM. the efficiency and quality of the work that was to be accomplish of thinking. .e culture was a corporate version of the Bauhaus ne wallsby a myrisua fatson. Prosigent of EMA Eliot Noyes, 1960,next to 0 Data Processing System. “Think? message and the way the company expressed it elf through archit design seemed to be polar opposites. ‘You wouldn’t have the slightest idea that in that building the sharpest technical minds in IBM are creating the electronics of the future, they were sort of cute too - like Singer Sewing Mao) gold lines on them, one kind or another - the Sorter .. vith the cas! and the queen Anne period style . So it was quite a Jump . when I percua Tom [Watson Jv] that there should be a real design progvanme .. I vork on the machine line. I inherited a lot of machines like sorters printing machines, and in those days it was mostly card machines. During this rapidly evelving period for both IBM and Woyes, from Watson repeatedly tried to get Noyes to sign on as an 18M employee as 2 the problems that Eliot was constantly bringing up. Noyes said, ‘I'll work with not for you'.1# He reslized that if he were a member of staff, middle manag would have cut his designs to shreds by the time they reached Watson. Dire to the CEO was essential to accomplish what he saw was necessary. The first ten years of his design/business friendship with Watson was 2! establishing the new American modernist design approach, which was the essence of the typewriter Noyes had completed in 1948, Tt was the first time IBM had take an advanced piece of technology, and most certainly one with a lot of vis office space, and invested a great deal of faith in contemporary design. ‘been a risk for the company and one that Watson, thankfully, was willing ‘The Selectric with a ‘Little golf-ball head that goes back and forth" most famous typewriter for many years since its introduction into the market in mner who worked on IBM typewriters over recalled the early inventive days that led to the design of this machine, Tt w an efficient mechanism with fewer parts and it was more convenient and easy .coss of the Selectr: ad use than its contemporary type-bar typewriters. The s fuelled the momentum that attracted management support ~ which con! feed back into the system and so evolve good design and technology. Noyes wa designing a mechanism thet would add to IBM's development process as we! duilding its reputation. McCroskery recalled this period of work at the off And then came along a study of the typewriter. So, we did a quick atudy remember I made some half-scale modele and that kind of fizsled out. One Eliot came in and eaid that there was a Dr Hickereon, in Poughkeepsie, had an idea for a typewriter and the development engineers {at IBM) needed some kind of model to seit the progranme to Tom Wateon and his execu group. This wae based on a whole eerica of older modele. One vas a ma: oatled the Blickenaderfer.2 IBM bought the rights to the machine but its typing clement had problems unsatisfactory typing impressions due to the shape of its cylindrical shaft.MoCroskery said, ‘They were going nuts how to work this thing out. There was .. a development engineer, Bud Beattie, and it was his job to got this thing to work He went home and his wife was complaining about a light bulb that had blown. He screwed the light bulb and, like in the cartoon, the light went on. He quickly got fa grease pencil, drew circles, and divided it up. This is it!” His resolution was to use a spherical typing element that, by only touching the paper at the point of the ‘letters, made e clean and unblurred typing impression. McCroskery continued: I gave Eliot a few leaeone on how it worked. He took it with him to New York City to Tom Wateon’e office; went through the whole rigarcle. Wateon vas ail excited about it. e [Watson Jr] goes out and calls his seeretary in and he said to Eliot, ‘Give the demonstration again.” Eliot goes through the whole thing. The platen knobs pop out and Wateon aay, ‘What do you think about it? The eeoretary says, ‘I don’t like the colour red on the knobe.” In apite of that, they (the typewrtter development group] got their money and that started the whole Selectric programme.” 4s the typewriter project heated up, Noyes hired a couple of other designers to come up with concepts but their designs were based on a typical typewriter. However, MeCroskery sew thet there was something special to incorporate, as there ‘was no moving platen. The typewriter was sel a piece of sculpture. Moyes was keen on the idea. ‘Eliot said, “That's the way to go: that's the kind of look that says ft is @ new machine. it is the kind of look that says it is going to be around for @ long time”™.12 MoCroskery and Noyes worked together on finalizing the stunning results. The uunique design and the Hight bulb that inspired the famous Selectric typing element helped 15M to make many, many millions of dollars in sales. Noyes’ solution utilized a functional, simplistic attitude that resulted in a design that was not only new in the way the typewriter locked and performed, but also prompted successful sale: ‘This product proved ~ just as Noyes had preached to American business and public fn 1940 when he was at MoMA - that if Americans had an opportunity to buy good design veraus streamlining and built-in obsolescence they would indeed choose to buy good design. Jim Laue, who was a designer at 18M in 1950 when Noyes began ‘working for them as a consultant, recalled the impact of Noyes? first typewriter for the company, Model A in 1947 (followed in 1948 by his more famous Model 8). When asked if other companies in the United States were designing in a similar way, he said, ‘Wot at all. There were some sorts of 1950s style still going on. He had designed 1a typewriter that was a knockout «A very good-looking one and it still is . rb was ‘the best designed typewriter ever’## This product proved not only that Noyes’ design direction was correct, but also that Watson Jr's trust in Noyes was well founded. In Induetrtat Deaign Hugh Johnston wrote, ‘On this occasion, Watson Jr's action [hiring Noyes] was thoroughly vindicated ty subsequent sales figures, for the drastically new typewriter played an important role in reviving a sluggish company division; by last year [1956] Electric Typewriter Division sales had climbed over {60 million £80 million] and the number of IBM electrics sold exceeded the combined total of all other makes." f-contained and he approached it asand there, he made st about the bi lems, which went far IBM reputation. Noyes took reurbable sureness, corporate face oted that other corporate examples D) had be urging W we began rect, ‘Sudden livetti in many publications. = 8 company in which154 joNizzoutypeariter for (lvet, 1948, Olver exempted the ind of unified inaustal design programme that Noyes was pushing forst Hans Gugelot and Dieter Rams. ‘Ska Pronasuger for Braun 988, [ayes alse ete Braun as sn example ofan effective programme tha mage es of ecoliont design stanserds a consistent design programme was obviously an integral part of its managemei policies - and obviously paying cff handsomely in various senses of the word.”?” Noyes also noted other central issues for which he needed to design « tution, issues that were also central to some of his personal beliefs and eth responsibility, order and control. In a speech in 10975 he said, ‘Design contr: doing; someone has to steer. This has happened brilliantly from the inside of certain companies - such as Olivetti - where initially Adriano Olivetti handled great skill the reletionship between design and his company’s products, grap and buildings. But normally this is not the case. Business schools do not train executives in this country to be skillful at this sort of thing.’t# At Braun in Germany, Dieter Rams was making a similer impact with new product designs highest standards. Noyes realized that the kind of success Olivetti had attained did not happen by accident, nor did it happen overnight or by folloving the ind of business tm: that was prevalent in the United States, It took hard, keen insight into issues and thoughtful work connecting everything. It was also culturally significant Im order to gain control he not only used a direct approach, he also planted se directly or indirectly ~ in the minds of thos He invested time in educating Watson, taking him to art exhibitions and bal performances, He wanted to show him that excellence is what matters most and # it can be found in different places throughout life. Watson said, ‘Moyes had a exhibit and who mattered. for all sorts of artistic things. Early on he tock me to a Noguc! T learned to admire the carvings of this creative Japant with us. He showed me what was good and bad about the great architects from fantastic group who pioneered modern architecture in Berlin before the war.” Hoyes also arranged for brochures of Olivetti typewriters and Braun pr to arrive almost magically on Watson's desk through other designers yet subtly educating him in what was good design and what was not According to Watson's well-publicized account, he happened to be passing a store on Fifth Avenue in the early 1950s and was inspired by seeing colourful Olivetti typewriters mounted on pedestals. He also said that a business man: family friend from IBM Holland, had just happened to send him brochures from t TBM and Olivetti and asked him to compare their products (at Noyes’ prompti behind the scenes). Watson said, “The Olivetti material vas filled with color and excitement and fit together like a beautiful picture puzzle. Ours looked like directions on how to make bicarbonate of soda."s0 Afver Watson became aware of the difference between IBM and Olivetti, and after e trip to Europe, his attitude changed. In Fortune, McQuade wrote, now unhappily no Ion: constan Noyes reoatte that he and Thomas Wateon Jr were dviving down Queens Bou on the way to Tdlevild Airport one day that year: ‘Tom had recently been Italy, and vas impressed by the fact that even in auch places aa Umbria cone aoraee a bright, nifty, precise littte chop, full of character - and atuaye wae Olivetté. about thon our oar passed a drab I.8.N. branch office # Queena, and Tom aid, ‘But look at that. Why do we have to took like that?**In 1954, before a meeting hold for executives north privately with his father, who was still in charge ited by Olivetti's design programme. Howev interest in contemporary design or architecture; in fact, he approved of the old-fashioned IBM products and buildings that were p company's modern identity. This was a sensitive area, and w reasons why Noyes d ship with Watson Jr. After listening and looking at the comparison Olivetti thet his son presented, Watson Sr agreed with him and asked his son what to do about it. Watson Jr told his father he was goin ity, Watson Jr met Watson Jr was by then hhis father had no wing to be obstacles to the 1s perhaps one of the es between IBM and t with these issues in a generational way through bi he was goit ‘to use Noyes. THE IBM DESIGN PROGRAMME in February 1956, the TEM programme was initiated at the personal instigation of Watson Jr, who was now Presider and he formally asked Noyes to join IBM as Consultant Design Director for the Corporate Design Programme (for pure, graphics, industrial design, interiors, exhibits and fine art procure. joyes was not of a mind to . 80 they worked out a compromise where! M (about three-quarters, as it t out) and have the remainder to devote to his own practice (including pet p f the company arch ment), In Industral Design Ursula Mellugh wi relinquish all of his private pr Noyes would devote the bulk of his time to 1 such as the excited about being made Des the do of work there to do."## Giving the approval of a complete design programme, Watson Jr said, ‘The first project I put him [Noyes] on was the ground floor of IBM's World Hoadquarter.taste, and it was like the first-class saloon on an ocean liner — Our IBM would look dramatically different. The new 702 (then IBM's fastest and latest computer i wes scheduled to be installed in the lobby the following summer; we decided ‘we'd use its unveiling to make a splash."¥4 A splash, indeed, it did make. ‘The new Data Processing Center was modern, spare, and very dramatic. Eliot made the completely white. He made the walls « vivid red. He put up understated signs that read ‘IBM 702’ in silver on the red wall. It was a beautiful presentation for anybody who was interested in modern design."** ‘In 1957 Hoyes explained the reasoning for his departure from the old IBM traditions in a speech he gave about the design programme to a group of managers. As a matter of reference, he used IBM's 705 computer that replaced the 702 in October 1954, It was announced with the same red wall: 4 you look « toward the 705 room, the bright colour on the wall behind is of courae because the machines themaelues have grey covers and they have only detailed interest externatly. The effect of unifying all those separate pieces. is pretty welt accomplished by this big red wall, uhich just goes screaming along the back and hae aome signa on it. ve have the white floor, the red wal and the main frame of the 705 and thie aleo shows that when you start Looking hard at the machines themselves you find that you have some really vondenful things to look at. Here ie the heart of the machine.%* When Watson Jr gave his father @ preview of the 702 room, Watson Sr approved of it. “The product made the statement, not the surroundings.'” $o oven traditional thinkers in the industry were able to understand Noyes’ message and be persuaded that design can contribute effectively to improving experience, communication and corporate reputation. A few days after Noyes’ presentation at Poughkeepsie and Endicott, he and Gordon Smith, then the internal communications director for the design programme, received the following letter: I attended the morning session of thie conference vith a good deal of miegiving and reservation. For years I have heard, at secondhand, many different vereione of what the Design Prodect meant and how it would affect my specific opera~ tione in ealee ~ After Ustentng to Nr Noyes deseribe the company's ains, objectives, and attitudes as embodied in the Design Project. I felt a compulaton to come to you and thank you both for the clarity and effectiveness of your explanation. I do want to take thie means to exprese my thanks to you for reversing my feelings of miegiving to secure, unqualified, and enthusiastic understanding of your plans and the vay they affect me. I believe that the appearance here and the opportunity to hear firethand have greatly enlarged the ‘scope of tdeas and plans that I can use in my own daily work. Noyes had fundamental requirements that had to be met before he began the programme. He described them ina speech at an IBM meeting in March 1967: _—__$_>$_$_ $$ $$ —$<— —————— ee nnaBie IB8 Showror featur 500 Firet, a title, I beoame Consultant Director of Design. Second, contact for reporting purposes with the top management of the company. Design must be a function of management, attentive to but not controlled by sales or engineering departments, ov any divietonal echelon. The programme was put u Director of Communication, a corporate staff office, for coordinating purposes. Thind, an announcement within the company to establich my right to work freely on theee probleme, and to state partially the goals of the programme. Fourth, an operating budget - not for design but for administering the progranme. "4 Watson remembered that Noyes also clearly defined what a recognizable TBM style should be: I wanted factories, products and sates offices alt done in such a vay that a percon could look at any of them and say instantly, ‘That’e IBM!’. But Noyes said thie vould be self-defeating. If we tried to fit a single uniform image, 4 vould eventually becone tired and dated. Instead, he suggested the Teu’s theme be simply the best in modern design. Whenever we needed something butit ion the beat architects, designers and artiste, and give them a relatively free hand to explore new ideas in their own styles.¢ on decorated, we would commis ‘The importance of Watson's mindset, when it came to design, should not be under- estimated because without thet side of the equation none of what Noyes ‘have been achieved. Indeed, much to Watson's credit and insightfulness, when he wont to work redesigning his business strategy he was also contributing to the efficiency that made the design programme credible and work wellWatson's approach was to decentralize in order to centrelize and it was his strategy to gain greater control over the rapidly expanding issues and new business environment thet IBM was facing. This was another good reason for design to be positioned as an executive function, but one that respected the needs of engineer jing and marketing. To move the programme forward he needed some good, immediate rosults that reflected the direction in which he wanted to take the company. Noyes recalled the first step he took to provide results under the programme in terms of graphics: he brought in Paul Rand - in his opinion the best graphic designer in the United States and well known internationally - as graphics consultant. ‘Rand and I sat in a little tiny back room and figured out how to get started"? Rand wont home and redesigned the trademark as @ presentation. Noyes remembered that on a train to New York, Rand squiggled something on the back of an envelope and said ‘Do you think this would do for 1B7"+? Marion Swannie, IBM's original graphic design director, who Inter married Rand, recalled that Paul said some years later than Noyes was initially unsure about how to create such @ big programme for such a large company. And in an introduc- tion to one of his first speeches to IBM, Noyes said, ‘The current project is set up to accomplish this programme, the breadth of which frightens me - I have a good many strong arms to lean on’.+# Rand felt it was fmuch simpler than Noyes made it out to be, but perhaps he was only looking at the problem as a graphic designer. Noyes was much more concerned, and justifiably so, He knew that the programme required continuity between everything and was not concerned just with graphics. However, graphic design was an important beginning and, Noy also logical to start with, because one produces printed material more quickly and more prolifically than products or buildings'.** & building, or even a product like a typewriter, would take a few years to come to fruition. In fact, in the 1970s, some typewriters, not unlike buildings, had a five-year lead time. Noyes spoke of the importance of Rand's contribution to the programme a year after it began, during an internal presentation in March 1967. He also made clear how graphics played a part in the total programme, ‘This is the area of design in which the theme of the idea should be developed because this is the art which we have established our general attitude, We have really pinned the label on ft. We have ...a few standards that we must stick to, but - there are going to be flexible standards. We will get variety without any loss of identity."«* Noyes continued, ‘The first thing that we looked at when this matter of graphics started was the logo, Paul Rand said very properly that this is the signature of the company. Paul said he thought we should make this more distinguished. “I think we should develop moze unique seraph construction to resolve some of these problems”".t# Noyes also pointed out the important functional features of the design. ‘T think we should meke it more geometric, more architectural so that it can be used in more places. I think at the same time we must retain the general flavour of the old one because we can’t go round . in a company of this size and tear down all the old labels thet are in existence or the signs on buildings, But we can provide continuity but improve it at the same time."4? He also spoke about scale - a ‘flexible means of identifying any IBM product or building’ - using examples like ‘seven-foot high, stainless-steel illuminated said, ‘wasee Invernavionai Buetneeo Machines 183 letters .. to go on the tower of Wi@ in NY’ and a ‘pattern inside this book cover — which is just @ pattern, a million IBMs'4# Noyes did not have to worry about the compatibility of graphic design with buildings, products, exhibitions or interiors. The unifying quality for all his clients’ programmes was expressed through the continuity of design excellence - the golden ‘hread that held it all together. He knew if he selected the best architects, product designers and graphic designers no matter where they were located in the world, and gave them the freedom to do their best - with insight into the corporate spirit hhe defined - everything would work together because everyone thought in the same ‘way. He trusted them to do their best. ‘Tom Hardy, an internal 18M designer (and later design director), got to know tioyes in the early 1970s and was impressed with his principles, which were still evolving some twenty years after the start of the design programme: Eliot thought that an overly ‘consistent appearance’ vould aoon date the company and make TBM look too stagnant, rather than conveying a progressive inage of a dynamic, high-technology organtsation. Rie high-oonoept notion of ‘consistency’ vas a ‘consistency of great ideas’ that appropriately addveeved the problens at hand, while at the same time embodying the essence of @ company. The reeult would therefore be one of ‘harmony created by con: tent high quality and distinctiveness", rather than by lowest, common denoni- nator sameness. ‘hs well as Rand, Noyes initially lined up three other people he respected to help him as design critics and consultants. charles and Ray Eames and their office were hired to help with exhibitions and ilms. George Nelson, also an architect, designer and writer, and Noyes* old friend, and design consultant and writer Edgar Kaufmann Jr, were to serve as general consultants, For control and direction, Noyes saw himself as the curator of design and consultant director. Later, the primary participants for the twonty years that followed were distilled down to Noyes as director, the Eames office and Rand, Noyes’ office of architects and designers, and 18M"s internal design directors and designers at various locations worldwide. Garsson said, ‘Bocause of IBM's plants in Europe, he was very interested in finding good designers in Burope. He made four trips a year to IBM plants and reviewed their work because everything had to go with everything . something that was made in a plant in Germany was going to end up in the same room with something that came from Texas. They had to look as if they came from the same family.'s® LaDuo recalled the rapidly evolving conditions at TBM and Noyes’ need to create & mechanism to maintain control. Talking of the different IBN plants, he said, ‘They went a Litele bit wild; their products had a different kind of appearance, Eliot kind of calmed everybody down, and he was running around to all of the ovations and urged them to simplify the product - only do what it needs. He was ‘trying to give them a simple philosophy so that it was good, pure design Eliot certainly realized that there had to be a discipline throughout the company ~ So, ‘we made guidelines’.#i The first set of solutions Noyes developed for consistency was= ‘a system of standardized bases with superstructures and details so that I could pull the old machines and the new ones together into some kind of compatibility'.#2 Gareson recalls that in order to gain control the Noyes office had to be an educational facility from time to time. ‘we had a guy from TBM down in Texas who came to work He was very into the south-west palette, champagne, pale peach, the colours of the sky, the colours of the south-west .. he was so into those colours he wanted to do IBM machines in those colours .. Hoe had to come end learn that he couldn't have peach-coloured typewriters sitting next to grey." ‘The 560 series was a computer system that IBM was manufacturing in different places in 1964 - Endicott, Poughkeepsie, England, California - and tloyes and IBM determined thet ‘this had to be a coordinated thing and that everything that happened in this product line had to be able to go with everything else in this, product line .. We pulled ourselves together .. and decided that we would agree always to make everything go with everything’. After achieving a beautiful result on the 360 series, “the advertising boys got together and made the real thing look ‘pretty glamorous .. we really had something going and they knew it’.** Noyes? intentions, however, were never to enforce his own outside design dogma on IBM, but rather to work jointly with the team he established and evolve the true spirit of the company from the inside out. Noyes saw that his main responsibility as consultant was, ‘to kindle and direct s heightened sense of design ‘within the company’.s# One of his key roles was therefore to inform and enlighten those who could not relate to what good design does for a company in evolving a corporate spirit, a good reputation and a design heritage that could make them proud and further develop their corporate spirit over the years. Noyes’ approach was not a packaging job, nor a corporate identity one, or what others call branding today. His design leadership merged many pathways into one concentrated focus and conveyed from within, through all its design attributes, the best that a company can be, it was a reputation based on the best design through accommodating people's needs with the best technology. Prom the beginning, Noyes respected what Watson contributed to their success and understood the importance of contimuing to inform and educate managers about design, Setting up the proper kind of management support from the start was especially important. In Industrial Deoign, Hugh Johnston wrote, ‘according to Noyes, the very spine of the project is Thomas J. Watson, Jr., President of IBM, and ‘the man responsible for coordinating company aims with design is Gordon Smith, a veteran IBM sales executive who has recently gone to work in a newly created staff position, Director of Communications.'*7 Noyes? relationship over the years with various directors of communication at IBM was eleo important, as this was the real day-to-day nexus between design and management. It started with Gordon Smith, and during the mid to late 19608 and the 1070s, when the interaction with Rand, Eames and Noyes came to full boil, it was with Dean McKay. McKay was also a personal client of Noyes as lit designed a house for lim, and he got on well with Fames and Rand, In Industrial Design, Johnston described how Noyes and Gordon Smith worked together:ha euccesaion of happen,’ Noyes cont when good de he desire for it begins the compat sny much a part people, the grap) ong after we have retined from They ave t ship of the IBM project .. In other words, wh at this is 0 do this 114 come to Mr N not have gone out and hired a {ot to see who he thought was the b IBM was the first company to appoint a design mi order to maintain consistent design as a gloi nager in planning, understanding technology using good human factors, -y and con: lod measure of ¢¢ compatithe created a mechanism for guarantesing up-to-date reviews and good comm ‘between all designers worldwide, os well as between management and desion ‘A major part of Noyes boration with his office, was in the category known as ‘office products", wi included typewriters and copiers, and, later, fax machines, small computers = printers, the typewriters attracted the most attention. Noyes had a thirty-y. history of designing them. LaDue recalled one part of this mechanism: the ‘White Room’, a small prefabricated industrial building just outside the city of Poughkeepsie, The in ‘was all white, with pure white Lincleum floors, walls and ceilings. The b average-locking on the outside, but inside there was a continuous flow of 15X"s latest designs - full-scale design concept models that often looked better than the mamufactured products. & passer-by would never have guessed that som: world's most advanced design and technology were in such a boring buill said, ‘When we had a coordination meeting with the design managers from a the states, and even from Burope, the White Room was used.’ He continued, + fot ~ 2 lot of big models coming in, all of industrial design for IBM, the work completed in colle a lot of the design reviews with announcement photography was done in that room, maybe every two or thres months .. When it was a big system, everything came to the White Room."#? The designers who attended the reviews, which took several days, were often over the world. ‘Tt was great fun," LaDue said. ‘A lot of things got adjusted. 4 guy came from one location, sew something else he liked. So, there is a very good coordination system.'#: Im addition to all these issues, Noyes had other tasks - some official and some unofficial - that were intended to attract the best designers and architects. and then to continuously educate them and provide the incentives that would keep the best. LaDue said, ‘Designers came out of good schools or had good jobs before ‘they joined us. They all knew about the design programme .. Many had known abe the work that Eliot had done on typewriters."## Finding and keeping the best ‘people was indeed important, In fact, after Noyes died there was a design award ‘programme initiated to reward designers for good designs. Noyes’ programme not only Inid the groundwork for IM and built @ stro ‘reputation for the company based on a design culture, but it also served ass model for other companies, using the same principles of good design linked with an effective business strategy. The design writer Ralph Caplan, who worked with ¥ Zames, Chermayeff, Geismar and other famous designers on many projects over the years, recently commented that design is not a now idea. ‘For a long time, from 1980s on, you had designers saying that design was just coming into were saying that, and they are still saying that. In the recent issues of Busines Week and ime (2008), there are special issues saying that they are discovering design now .. It keeps getting rediscovered."¢# This is not unlike what Noyes used to say about the IBM programme - ‘1 not so much a design revolution as it is @ design evolution’.%4 In the 1850s Noyes and Smith held design seminars at different facilities to educate the entire compacr. ‘Two of the most famous and ground-breaking of these were at Poughkeepsie a: Endicott, New York, in 1957, when Noyes, Rend, Bames, Kaufmann Jr and Nelson, alclot Noyes 8 Associates, desin for an 8M sales oie colour scheme, 1955Intemational sustneee Maokinee 169 with IBM designers and executives, toured factories and made presentations. Noyes’ ‘message then still holds true today. He said, The programme ae a whole te, T think, ect up for two matn reasone. One, te to give a personality - to state the attitude that represents IBM; cecond, te the aseurance of veoognition of thte pereonatity in ite statements, to give a clear identity to IBM én every ease that ve can.t® ‘Thomas Watson Jr and Eliot Noyes coordinated their efforts in such a way that design became the philosophical expression that reflected IBM's true corporate values. The balance between good design and business also embodied a forvard- looking attitude by using advanced technology in appropriate ways. The harmonious nature of the company's business and design principles evolved customer trust beceuse of its new character and the dependable performance of its products and services eRe conseuss WAS Geumicanon FRE GATES aeART AND ARCHITECTURE POR IBM [As part of the total design programme for IBM, one of Noyes" duties was to select architects from around the world to design the company's buildings (and to source the art featured within thom). They were an important part of the programme, Watson said, ‘We needed architects in particular, because we were just about to begin the greatest factory expansion in IBM history. By 1858 our factories in both Mndicott and Foughikeopsie were overflowing with almost ten thousand ‘employees each." Garsson recalled, ‘He [Moyes] would try to find the best people to do different projects to expose the whole corporation to a broader knowledge of what you can ‘accomplish. Some of IBM's best buildings, he didn’t do. Not because he couldn't hhave done them, but because he wanted them [IBM] to see a different approach and ‘hat there was more than one approach, but it always had to be excellent. in other ‘words, the criterion was excellence.""? ‘The architecture programme gave the company vast international recognition for excellence in building, end received many awards and accolades. Tt also provided an important pathway for Noyes to demonstrate the enlightened design spirit he was establishing for the corporation. Noyes always selected the best architects - Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, Jchn Bolles, Bdward Larrabee Barnes and others around the world, Chosen for their talent, they also ‘had an understanding of onvironmental conditions, cultural relevance, indigenous materials, the people who were to use the buildings, and other issues that are essential for expressing the unique quelities of a structure according to its site, The first of these projects was for one of IBM's Development Minnesota (105@), for which Saarinen was selected. Watson noted, ‘Zero Searinen was the architect Eliot chose for Rochester. It was the first groat test of his idea that ‘we should hire top people, because Saarinen was elready famous and quite expensive." loyes said, ‘When I recommended Saarinen for the job, T was not thinking about whet appearance his building would have, I was thinking that if he does the job, I will not have to worry about its integrity or its modernity, and these are certainly the quelities that ISM should represent."¢# Watson continued his thoughts about Saarinen, ‘He designed us @ complex of connecting buildings laid out in a checkerboard pattern around gardens and courtyards, It was both beautiful and practical, and got attention in all the architecture magazines. Thet was pleasing, bbut what really sold me was the fact that the plant was completed on time and under budget. To me this proved that hiring a good architect is good business."7¢ Sarinen was used again later on for the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, Hew York (1961), for a very different and appropriate result ‘The IBM programme continued to express the best that architecture could offer on an international level. Brouer contributed a development factory in France (1962) and Nenufacturing and Development Site in Florida (1970), both of which made use of modern durable materials in en slegant way with their concrete, sweeping lattice-like curves, Mies’ distinctive One IBM Plaza in Chicago (1972) expressed technical excellence and uncompromising formalism in a city thet had already made fee mark in history for fta modernist functionality. —————, such as ti nined his app7 ca vy12awe ing that Noyes designed for IBM was a collaborative pr it was an educi ‘The last bul Watson J ional building for n .gement in Armonk, Nev als that Noyes had beon ‘twenty years earlier, but with a more contemporary attitude. This last completed soon after Noyes’ death 1980). Tt shared many of the qualities and mat Before his death Noyes had concluded that the design programme fundamental rethinking because of the retirement of Watson dr, the rapid IBM in a global market and the decentralization of ing on the fundamental components of the programme ~ hi contemporary ideals ~ mad te modification. Change wa flexi le and forwar xing, timeless abe: nda al to its very nature, For this rea qualities thet led to excellence, flexibility and consist programme were the key to continuing design success - and not onl TRMIMDC — PaHiGirrun SSChapter Six INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES In 1056, after building the Country Club Hoad house, Noyes moved his office, Eliot Noyes & Associates, from Stamford to New Canaan. Employee Allan MeCroskery recalled that it initially consisted of the two top floors in a small building next to the town’s fire station, and thet Philip Johnson had an office next door. When he started loyes already had three architects who had been his students at Yale ‘working with him: Chuck Baffo, Arthur DeSalvo and John Black Lee. ‘at one point, NeCroskery continued, ‘there were four or five architects and mysolf and some other designers like John Bruce.” Im the early days, as his business grew, Noyes was constantly juggling additional office space in New Canaan: the clients that both ke and Jenson served ‘meant that this tiny, countrified, dormitory town was becoming one of the world's design and architectural zeniths, Tn his article about Noyes in Fortune, Walter Mcquade described the studio as the ‘headquarters of one of the most productive industrial designers in the world"? Soon, both departments within the office expanded steadily, but with some vicissitudes that required Moyes to be flexible and rent space in various buildings all over town, According to Sandy Garsson, designers always seemed to be walking from one building to the next and having impromptu mestings in the street. She also recalled that, im 1065, “They didn’t really have a desk for me but they had a rickety wooden one with wheels, one of those Kittle desks with the sides that ip up. They had a big old Model 5 typewriter on that and an Zames shell chair with the New York Yellow Pagee in the seat as a cushion for the chair? Not only was the business complex, but managing this was becoming complex in itself. Noyes, nevertheless, was always in control, Now Canean’s afiuence increased as the population of corporate executives ‘who commuted to New York City grew, and its little railway station wes sometimes referred to, jokingly or arrogantly depending on your perspective, as the ‘station next to heaven’. Even though this kind of New England snobbery ran against Molly's and Eliot's grain, the town was in many ways the perfect site for their home and office, Eventually, when the practice became more established, people like Charles Bames, Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermayafl, who were central to Noyes' corporate programmes, made the easy commute out of New York to attend meetings, and sometimes have a meal at the house or in Paul Rand's case, he made the short drive from his neighbouring town in Weston, Connecticut. Even chief executive officers like Tom Watson Jr from IBM, Najesb Halaby from Pan Am and Rawleigh Warner Jr from Mobil visited Noyes’ office from time to time. He realized that the location of his business was all-important because his success with the programmes was dependent on his accessibility to top people, Garsson said, ‘Rawleigh Warner would come in ‘here in his torn eneakers and his dirty raincoat. I used to warn whoever was on the mnt desk in case some guy comes in here looking kind of seruffy."* In July 1963 an article in Architectural Forum, ‘Now Design Offices from an Old Store’, highlighted the newly converted architecture and design office: