Crouwel was the successor to Willem Sandberg who used an avant-garde approach in his work, utilising torn-paper montage, mixing of sans serif and old Egyptian typefaces and often off-center positioning. Crouwel steered away from this artistic approach and implemented a cohesive design system and a strong identity that emulated the corporate identity boom of the 1950s and 60s.
In the late 1960s, IBM was one of the world’s pre-eminent corporations, employing over 250,000 people in 100 countries. While Paul Rand’s creative genius has been well documented, the work of the IBM staff designers who executed his intent outlined in the IBM Design Guide has often gone unnoticed.
Yoshio Hayakawa was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1917 and became a leading designer and artist in postwar Japan. His work was a harmonisation of traditional Japanese art with Western art.
Takenobu Igarashi was born in 1944 in Tokyo and is best known for his typographic work as both a sculptor and designer. His work in over 30 permanent museum collections and continues to inspire designers today.
