The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976

296 Pages·2011·6.13 MB·English

by  John Harwood

The Interface

i
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The Interface
IBM and
the Transformation
of Corporate Design
1945–1976
John Harwood
A Quadrant Book
University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London
Quadrant, a joint initiative of the University of Published by the
Minnesota Press and the Institute for Advanced University of Minnesota Press
Study at the University of Minnesota, provides 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
support for interdisciplinary scholarship within Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
a new collaborative model of research and http://www.upress.umn.edu
publication.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sponsored by the Quadrant Design, Architecture, Harwood, John
and Culture group (advisory board: John Archer, The interface : IBM and the transformation of
Ritu Bhatt, Marilyn DeLong, Kate Solomonson) and corporate design, 1945–1976 / John Harwood.
the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Quadrant is generously funded by the Andrew W.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7039-0 (hc : alk. paper)
Mellon Foundation.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7452-7 (pb : alk. paper)
http://quadrant.umn.edu 1. International Business Machines Corporation—
History. 2. Corporations—United States—History.
This book is supported by a grant from the 3. Industrial design. 4. Modern movement
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the (Architecture)—United States. 5. Noyes, Eliot.
Fine Arts. 6. Rand, Paul, 1914–1996. I. Title.
HD9696.2.U64I2547 2011
Every effort was made to obtain permission to 338.7’6004097309045—dc23
reproduce material in this book. If any proper 2011031742
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The University of Minnesota is an equal-
Copyright 2011 by the Regents of the University opportunity educator and employer.
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On the way from mythology to logistics, thought has lost the element of self-refl ection,
and today machinery disables men even as it nurtures them.
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer
Dialectic of Enlightenment
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Contents
1 Introduction
The Interface
17 Chapter One
Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand, and the Beginnings
of the IBM Design Program
59 Chapter Two
The Architecture of the Computer
101 Chapter Three
IBM Architecture
The Multinational Counterenvironment
161 Chapter Four
Naturalizing the Computer
IBM Spectacles
217 Conclusion
Virtual Paradoxes
229 Acknowledgments
233 Notes
271 Index
Introduction

viii Introduction
The Interface
What remains for some design historian to elucidate some day is the precise chicken–egg
relationship that lies at the heart of . . . [the] uncommon relationship between designer
and corporation on the present US scene, and it has already become diffi cult to see how
it started. . . . Whatever the answer, the historical fact of Noyes’s intervention remains,
and with it, the crucial infl uence of IBM on the appearance of computers.
Reyner Banham

1 Introduction