IBM software visual identity

Erik Adigard

Our aim was to help IBM rethink itself as a new holistic organization that engages issues beyond corporate bottomline. We needed to represent IBM and its brands as fully concerned with issues ranging from business to culture and from science to ecology. This was expressed through the creation of a new visual vernacular and syntax illustrated in a pictorial mosaic (or “quilt”) that can be used freely by IBM designers worldwide. (w/Patricia McShane, M-A-D)

Images of IBM software visual identity

  1. Image 1 — IBM mosaics 2 (IBM software visual identity)
  2. Image 2 — IBMsoftware adigard (IBM software visual identity)

    Erik Adigard, France (2009)

    Erik Adigard is, with Patricia McShane, a partner in M-A-D, an interdisciplinary studio combining brand positioning, interaction design, visual communication, video, media installations and environmental design. M-A-D’s routinely works on...

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    • IBM software visual identity, 2002

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    Our aim was to help IBM rethink itself as a new holistic organization that engages issues beyond corporate bottomline. We needed to represent IBM and its brands as fully concerned with issues ranging from business to culture and from science to ecology. This was expressed through the creation of a new visual vernacular and syntax illustrated in a pictorial mosaic (or “quilt”) that can be used freely by IBM designers worldwide. (w/Patricia McShane, M-A-D)

    Erik Adigard, France (2009)

    Erik Adigard is, with Patricia McShane, a partner in M-A-D, an interdisciplinary studio combining brand positioning, interaction design, visual communication, video, media installations and environmental design. M-A-D’s routinely works on the relationships between technology and socio-cultural concerns.

    Notable works are visual essays and websites for Wired, the short documentary Webdreamer exploring the decay of digital culture, the book Architecture Must Burn and the branding of IBM software. Recent projects include the Spontaneous Interventions exhibits, a 400m-tall animation for the ICC tower in Hong Kong, and the design of Expanded Field, an exploration of the convergence between architecture and art practices. Other commissions include installations for biennales in Paris, Lisbon, St Etienne and Venice.

    Adigard teaches communication design at the California College of the Arts. He works between M-A-D’s main office in the SF Bay Area and his studio in Montpellier, France.

    Education

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    • Undergraduate,  
    • Postgraduate

    2011 – today

    • California College of the Arts (USA)

    Adjunct professor of communication design, time-based media and image experimentation. Other academic projects include workshops in the US and Europe since 2000

    Agencies

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    • Wired Ventures

      1992 – 1998

    Awards

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    • 1999

    Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design
    • 2012

    Rome Prize in Design

    Other Professional Activities

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    • Academic reviews, advising and juries in US and Europe (graphic design and architecture programs)

      1996 – present

    • Advisory boards of Adobe Design Achievement Awards

      2006 – 2011