IBM can be considered a juggernaut for the graphic design profession: A corporate identity so well crafted, so easily identified, so commonly cited as example of good design and so engrained in culture and business that it seems unbreakable and unfathomable to repeat.

Much of the success of IBM’s identity and personality could not have been achieved without the vision and determination of the man credited with IBM’s rise to the top, Thomas Watson, Jr, who inherited the company in 1956 shortly before his father passed away. Thomas Watson, Jr, is famous for having said “good design is good business,” a mantra quite valued today. He was the quintessential design patron, employing Paul Rand, Eliot Noyes, Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames.

And no element of the overall identity is more iconic, global and unmistakeable than its striped logo, designed by Paul Rand in 1972. However, IBM’s identity did not always look so effective:

In 1924, when the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company adopted the name International Business Machines Corporation.

In 1946, when it first started using the IBM acronym. Set in an outlined Beton Bold Condensed.

In 1956, Paul Rand’s first attempt at revitalizing the identity. Changed from Beton Bold Condensed to City Medium. Between 1956 and 1972 – when the striped logo was officially introduced - Rand redrew this version of the logo many times, saying 1) “The first logo I did for IBM I thought was for the birds! I kept changing the drawing all the time, because it was never perfect. I didn’t change it so that it was noticeable, but I changed it so that it was noticeable to a guy who knows how to do lettering.”

In 1962, was the first time the striped logo had been introduced as a solution to the heaviness of the IBM logo and to the perceived lack of rhythm that Paul Rand noted in the logo. Two versions were created, one with 8 lines and one with 13 lines. Since then, IBM’s logo has become a standard for corporate identity.

In 1981, Paul Rand tested the limits he, himself, had imposed through comprehensive identity documents and ruling with an iron fist as the official gatekeeper of IBM’s identity, when he attempted a rebus of the logo for an in-house event poster and faced opposition from management, who went as far as prohibiting the distribution of the poster. Today, it is one of the most endearing images of graphic design.

In 1999 VSA Partners, a Chicago-based design firm, created its first annual report for IBM and it was the following year, 2000, when VSA’s work redefined what an annual report could be. IBM’s 2000 annual report has been lauded for its design, its writing, its photography and illustration and its ability to communicate the strategy and vision of the company, not only from the year past but moving forward.

Building on this annual report, VSA has continued to push the year-end document in different directions and to maintain a strong, dynamic and evolving identity with IBM’s shareholders. VSA has also translated the printed annual reports for online viewing, where, rather than repeating the layout of the printed version, they have adapted to the constraints as well as the benefits of a web presentation.

IBM provides an archive of their annual reports online.

IBM

VSA Partners
IBM Logo History
The Idealistic Corporation by Michael Bierut for Design Observer
The Once and Future Brand by David Stairs for Speak Up

A Business and Its Beliefs : The Ideas That Helped Build IBM by Thomas J. Watson
Father, Son & Co. : My Life at IBM and Beyond by Thomas J. Watson Jr., Peter Petre
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround by Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black