IBM: Lakeside

At the behest of their friend Eliot Noyes, the highly respected architect and industrial designer who played a critical role in developing and leading IBM’s design program (and who, as curator of industrial design at the Museum of Modern Art in the mid-1940s, was instrumental in helping launch the Eameses’ career), Ray and Charles Eames began a consultative relationship with IBM in the late 1950s that would endure and flourish through the following decades. After the success of the Eames- and Saarinen-designed 1964 New York World’s Fair pavilion, IBM tapped Noyes to design their pavilion for the 1968 World’s Fair in San Antonio—and he in turn turned to the Eameses to provide a film that would serve as the lynchpin to the overall experience. A Computer Glossary, or Coming to Terms with the Data Processing Machine, offers a window into the hardware, applications, and operations driving IBM’s technology with the goal of demystifying the world of computers and making the technical vocabulary accessible to all. If the rendering on this postcard bears something of a resemblance to a gas station (save for the monorail), it’s no coincidence—Noyes was also responsible for developing the look and feel of Mobil’s physical locations throughout North America.