1978 IBM Corporation
At its annual conference in Asilomar, California, IDSA honored the company with an "Award for Corporate Design Excellence" for "their top management's insistence that good design be a most important influence within the company, and for IBM's continuing effort to tie together its product, corporate identity and graphics communications, architecture, packaging, exhibit, display and all forms of advertising and promotion into an overall presentation of quality and excitement."

IBM established its first design department in 1943 headed by George H. Kress. In 1956, IBM engaged Eliot Noyes, FIDSA to serve as Consultant Design Director to improve visual quality throughout the company. For more on the biography and career of Mr. Noyes, see his bio on 100 Years of Design-A Chronology 1895-1995). Noyes engaged other consultants, including Raul Rand, Charles Eames and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. In 1957, IBM premiered a new logotype by Paul Rand, and in 1959 a "Design Guide", the first of such comprehensive corporate graphic manuals.

(biographical information is being sought for Mr. Kress)

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