Proceed Boldly

YS Labs

DESIGN BRIEF

Summary

Seeking a graphic design that highlights the similarities between Yves Saint Laurent’s own early personal style and the mid-century corporate dress emphasized by companies like IBM in the 1960s, and explores what might have been if his designs had more influence on office wear and corporate style at the time.

Deliverable

A graphic design suitable for T-shirts, sweatshirts, and posters.

Requirements

Appeal to fans of fashion, mid-century design, art history, and computer history.

Feature YSL’s likeness and his work, juxtaposed with mid-century company culture.

Recognize IBM’s contributions to corporate design through partnerships with designers like Paul Rand and the Eames Office.

Avoid infringing on copyrights or trademarks.

Reference

Personal Style

Saint Laurent could have passed for a corporate employee early in his career. His well-manicured hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and crisp white shirts are the ideal of the mid-century corporate dress strategy typified by 1960s IBM.

Saint Laurent as the recipient of the Neiman Marcus Award, 1958

Saint Laurent sketching at a blackboard, November 1957

Designs and Models

Over the course of the 1960s, YSL popularized the peacoat in his first-ever collection in 1962, made the tuxedo fashionable with women with the Le Smoking suit in 1966, and was the first couturier to open a ready-to-wear boutique with Rive Gauche in that same year.

Model wearing a peacoat, courtesy Musée YSL, 1960s

Model wearing Le Smoking jacket. Photo by Helmut Newton, printed in 1975

Mondrian cocktail dress worn by Léo. Photo by Jaques Verroust, July 1965

Corporate Design

IBM was a marketing colossus. Logos, reports, packaging, and ephemera were designed by Paul Rand. Exhibitions and swag were designed by the Eames Office. Their “good design is good business” ethos played a huge part in making them one of the biggest marketing success stories of all time.

IBM “8-bar” logo, designed by Paul Rand, 1972

Charles Eames at Mathematica, IBM pavilion, New York World’s Fair, 1964

IBM employees at wire-wrapping station in Endicott, 1963

IBM Carbon Paper packaging, designed by Paul Rand, 1950s

Cover of “A Guide to PL/I for Commercial Programmers” 1968 edition

Poster for the IBM Design Program, Paul Rand, 1970s

Appendix

The Mondrian Revolution

IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design

IBM Design Language

Women in Technology

IBM Pavilion 1965 World’s Fair

Good Design is Good Business