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IBM Type

ibm.github.io

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Re: IBM Type

#3

Post by Norther »

While interesting, is this really necessary? Call me skeptical, but value add = negligible, justification for an entire department to spend several months+ working = likely.

I can see why companies like Apple and Microsoft would want to be involved in making fonts, they make their bread and butter by creating warm-fuzzies and having a consistent design language; IBM though, less so?

Genuinely interested to hear others thoughts.

Re: IBM Type

#5

Post by derekbreden »

Norther wrote: post #3

While interesting, is this really necessary? Call me skeptical, but value add = negligible, justification for an entire department to spend several months+ working = likely. I can see why companies like Apple and Microsoft would want to be involved in making fonts, they make their bread and butter by creating warm-fuzzies and having a consistent design language; IBM though, less so? Genuinely interested to hear other…

I think it’s more like the design equivalent of open source software. It’s meant for internal use but then “open sourced”, there may be a trend, I’m not sure.

https://atlassian.design

Re: IBM Type

#7

Post by disposedtrolley »

Norther wrote: post #3

While interesting, is this really necessary? Call me skeptical, but value add = negligible, justification for an entire department to spend several months+ working = likely. I can see why companies like Apple and Microsoft would want to be involved in making fonts, they make their bread and butter by creating warm-fuzzies and having a consistent design language; IBM though, less so? Genuinely interested to hear other…

IBM's last corporate typeface was a slightly modified version of Helvetica, which wasn't particularly distinctive and didn't see much adoption internally.

Plex was introduced a few weeks ago internally with considerable uptake. Intranet articles and corporate comms look much nicer now :P

IBM also produced the Carbon Design System which influences most of their product offerings (most notably on IBM Cloud/Bluemix) http://carbondesignsystem.com/

Re: IBM Type

#9

Post by orbifold »

Norther wrote: post #3

While interesting, is this really necessary? Call me skeptical, but value add = negligible, justification for an entire department to spend several months+ working = likely. I can see why companies like Apple and Microsoft would want to be involved in making fonts, they make their bread and butter by creating warm-fuzzies and having a consistent design language; IBM though, less so? Genuinely interested to hear other…

Airports comission their own fonts and so do cities, car manufacturers and banks. Typically they are proprietary and might even have an exclusive license because they are considered to be part of the corporate identity.
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