IBM Brand

The IBM Brand and Design Systems team develops guidelines, templates and tools to ensure that IBM’s brand is expressed with clarity and confidence.
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Team

Sadek Bazaraa
Katie Andresen
Paul Palade
Lucas Souza Melo
Colleen Yates
Diana Stanciulescu
+ many talented folks
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Role

Brand & Identity
Art Direction
Web Design
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Year

2023-2025
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The challenge and goal is scale and consistency across all touchpoints. This is achieved by building frameworks and assets that enable teams across the organization to make decisions that are considered and thoughtful. The impact of this work postures IBM’s brand as cohesive and future-facing.

My role in the IBM Brand and Design Systems team was to develop guidelines, templates, tools, and processes to ensure brand consistency at scale. I also lead initiatives to champion new collaborative tools by delivering tutorials, and to establish consistency in product imagery by fostering collaboration amongst various teams at IBM.
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Stewardship and collaboration
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The IBM Brand and Design Systems team plays a central role in shaping how IBM’s brand is expressed. As brand stewards, the team acts as a guide and collaborator with various teams across the business.
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Templates, kits and tools
Scaling design, establishing consistency, and increasing productivity
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Logos library
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The IBM 8-bar logo and Rebus are amongst some of the most valuable corporate assets for the company. Guidelines and components were developed to make sure these assets are used with proper consideration.
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Universal type library
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Typography is a pillar of IBM’s brand expression. IBM Plex® is a custom designed typeface that reflects the brand spirit, beliefs and design principles. The type scale is designed to meet the requirements of brand and marketing assets.
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Presentation library
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Presentations are one of the most common communication tools for IBM. Templates were built to ensure a baseline level of consistency, to help increase the speed in how quickly they can be built, and designed with flexibility for customization.
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Device frames library
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Device frames aid in visually communicating digital products and experiences in context. These are designed to represent standard device types without reference to device brand for image longevity, and to work in relation to IBM’s established illustration style.
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Hybrid UI kit
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The Hybrid UI illustration style is a cross between interface design and conceptual illustration. It it designed the communicate the main features of a digital product in an expressive manner. A kit of individual parts and pieces was developed so that illustrations can be created more quickly and for consistency between various illustrations.
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Repeatable and scalable
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Templates and kits for commonly used assets like papers, merchandise, email, banners were developed. These resources reflect the craftsmanship, attention to detail, and comprehensive approach required. These have increased productivity by prevent redundant efforts and and ensures brand consistency at scale.
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Standards and guidelines
Delivering brand, strategy and design guidance to enable creation at scale
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IBM watsonx
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Corporate brand guidelines were created to ensure that IBM’s portfolio of AI products are represented in a unified and confident way.
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Consolidation and delivery
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The main objectives of the IBM watsonx Experience Guide was to consolidate multiple work streams into a single source of truth, and to create and distribute cohesive guidance and assets to the company.
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Badging system
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Due to the fact that IBM’s AI solutions can be embedded into third party products, a badge system was designed to indicate the technology partnership in marketing and in-product contexts.
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Unifying visual expressions
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In response to organizational restructuring that unified IBM’s key initiatives, guidelines were created to articulate a cohesive yet vibrant visual expression.
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IBM Event Design
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IBM events are important moments of how IBM shows up in the physical world. Guidelines were developed to include booth models, environmental graphics, signage and messaging.
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Designing for scale
Finding ways to influence design at a scale that results in meaningful impact
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In a company as large and complex as IBM, it can be a challenge to create meaningful change. At the same time, there can be many opportunities to influence design at scale–by delivering templates and kits where the details are carefully considered, extending functionality of tools by developing plugins to increase productivity, and fostering collaboration and community between teams across the company.
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