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 Market
Imperatives:
There are the usual market imperatives that make it axiomatic to undertake
a corporate design programme. Increasingly for example, are the pressures
of worldwide competition on the one hand, buttressed by government regulations
on the other. And which are compounded further by the progressively strengthening
lobbies of consumer rights, investor awareness and employee morale - all
vying for the corporation's attention. However, what interests us here
is to examine how axiomatic is industrial design as an input in making
such corporate image-building exercises successful. Also throwing open
the question of whether industrial design has the cutting edge to justify
such investments. It would appear that historically, the gateway to corporate
designing initiatives has a direct relationship with the prevailing level
of industry-designer liaisoning/interfacing. What, therefore, is the point
at which the industry feels compelled to call in the designer? It might
be of relevance to trace the corporate search for visual identity in terms
of some of the well known corporate image-building exercises world wide.
Industry
and the Designer:
The liaisoning between the industry and the designer has
had an early precedent in Europe. There is the example of the commission
that the firm Tropon gave Van de Velde in the 1890's which included an
entire line up of design-needs - from the poster for the given product
to its packaging and its prospectus. Then there was the commissioning
given to Peter Behrens to design for the Allgemeine Elektrizitatsgesellschaft
(AEG), everything from the note paper heading to the building itself -
an early example of complete design co-ordination. And yet another one
with Frank Pick's series of design elements for the London Underground
Railways in 1923 that gave the amalgamated transport system of that metropolis
a co-ordinated pattern. Yet another early example of such industry-designer
link, with an effort towards co-ordinating design elements across products
for a single company, was Olivetti. Olivetti had already paved the way
for design co-ordination through the efforts of its first advertising
manager (in 1928), and who was later to become the company's president
- Adriano Olivetti. Under his aegis, Marcello Nizzoli not only provided
designs for posters but for Olivetti typewriters. This remained in addition
to the other distinguished artists/designers such as Bruno Munari and
Giovanni Pintori employed by the company.
It is often assumed that corporate design's evolved role in the West is
tied up with its state of industrialisation. Which could be true. But
equally, the successes and failures of these companies could hold some
lessons for others heading for similar scenarios. It would be interesting
to understand the collective thrust/ collective culture behind corporate
design commissionings.
Design
Intiatives:
When Celanese Corporation, a diversified industrial group
with Devoe Paint as one of its products, had embarked upon its corporate
design programme, its post-War chairman Harold Blancke had slated/envisaged
the programme to be one of its "most effective tools for competing in
the world of business and industrial communications." This was at a time
when the company was grappling to emerge from rough financial patches
into a strong growing concern under Blancke's chairmanship. The impression
that Celanese was no more just a manufacturer of fibres but a major chemical
company needed change. Once again, it was Saul Bass & Associates who would
come up with the strong curvilinear "C" that has come to be so widely
acclaimed for making it representative of both heavy industry as well
as of high fashion - the two principal business interests of the Celanese
group. Bass was clear that Celanese Corporation's synthetic fibres for
women's wear and all the accompanying high style came from the company's
"industrial 'smokestack' area with all its chemical plants and refineries."
For him, the challenge lay in the "virtually irreconcilable nature of
the contradictory visual requirements of the (design) problem." However,
at the end and much to Bass' credit, design became the most important
catalyst for being able to bridge the notion of paint with that of fibres.
This was done by using visual clues that would establishing a connection
through the shared lowest common denominators, viz., common materials,
processes and research for the two product groups. Part of the global
strategy for this billion dollar corporation would arrive from design
inputs that enabled it to form a unified and expressive visual identity.
What
is a corporate identity system?
Aspects
of visual identity
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