In 1956 the designer Eliot Noyes was employed by the Director of IBM to rethink the company’s design as a whole, from products to communication right up to the architecture of the buildings.

Graphic Designer Paul Rand was invited to define all of the graphic documents used in the company. Thus began one of the most memorable graphic design projects of the 20th century, at the heart of the “IBM Graphic Design Program”.

The series of IBM logotypes created by Paul Rand culminated in 1972 in a drawn version made up of layered strips, making the company’s initials instantly recognisable all over the world. This iconic logo, composed of 8 bars, continues to be used today.

Between the sixties and the eighties a significant group of graphic rules and uses was documented and regularly updated in a folder that was organised into sections. Inside we can find the instructions that allow us to reproduce the logotype, graphic and typographic rules, designs for internal and external documents, signage and architectural applications. This document allows one to work with the company’s graphic signs in coherence and efficient discussion with other trades. Today this folder is an iconic, rare and little documented object and it seems important to us to render it accessible and distributable, to Graphic designers, students and anyone interested in the adventure undertaken by this emblematic company.

Considering the many updates that were made to graphic design standards and norms, the different folders of the IBM norm that we consulted often differed greatly in terms of their content.

The successive documents from the folder and their developments will be published and reproduced so as to offer the widest possible vision of the work accomplished over a period of more than twenty years. This work will be done in collaboration with the archive team from IBM New York, and the Kandinsky Library of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The project is being undertaken with the approval of the legal successors of Paul Rand and IBM itself.

Critical publications dedicated to the analysis of Graphic Design are sadly few and far between today, particularly in France, but also in Europe as a whole.

          Adopting an analytical and critical posture with regard to the forms and activities of Graphic Design, Sacha Léopold and François Havegeer intend to establish a printed publication that deals with these practices. The publication will work with seven authors in its first year (Lise Brosseau, Manon Bruet, Thierry Chancogne, Céline Chazalviel, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Catherine Guiral and Étienne Hervy). This initially limited choice, linked to a desire to propose an experience with a group that has previously participated together in projects, will then allow for the inclusion of foreign authors in the second year of publication.

The goals of FAIRE are as follows:
— To produce a publication based on the rhythm of the school year (appearing from October to May), for undergraduate students as well as researchers and professionals, documenting contemporary and international practices along with the history and grammar of styles.
— To publish 15 bilingual (French/English 30000+30000 characters), A4, 20-page issues per year.
— To document each issue as a unique, tentacular subject addressed by a renowned author, by encountering the authors and Graphic Designers involved.
— To consider and print an iconography that is specific to these subjects.
— To focus on emblematic practices that go beyond questions set by current trends and the perishable nature of a magazine.
— To allow authors to submit their intentions concerning thematic openings without imposing a particular subject to be treated.
— To organize events, launches, and encounters with international figures from the field of Graphic Design in connection with each issue.
— To offer subscriptions on a twice-monthly basis.
— To allow people to find four assembled issues in bookshops every two months, distributed by Les Presses du réel and Idea Books.
— Il s’agit de FAIRE. It’s about DOING

n° 01 — A collection: Rouge-gorge, Éditions Cent pages by SpMillot. Author: Thierry Chancogne
n° 02 — A technical platform: www.colorlibrary.ch by Maximage. Author: Manon Bruet
n° 03 — A monograph: Recollected Work by Mevis & Van Deursen. Author: Étienne Hervy
n° 04 — A communication: invitation cards by the artist Stanley Brouwn. Author: Céline Chazalviel
n° 05 — An Instagram post: P/Pa/Para/Paradiso by jetset_experimental (July 1 2017). Author: Manon Bruet
n° 06 — A series of gestures: Invisible Touch, from Farocki to l’Architecture Aujourd’hui, some notes on the handling of things. Author: Catherine Guiral
n° 07 — A book: Parallel Encyclopedia, Batia Suter. Author: Jérôme Dupeyrat
n° 08 — A residency: Coline Sunier and Charles Mazé at Villa Medici. Author: Thierry Chancogne
n° 09 — A typeface: Mitim by Radim Pesko. Author: Thierry Chancogne
n° 10 — A line: Robert Brownjohn. Author: Étienne Hervy, Natasha Leluc
n° 11 — A printed exhibition: vol.19 by Klaus Scherübel, Title of the Show by Julia Born and THEREHERETHENTHEREby Simon Starling. Author: Jérôme Dupeyrat
n° 12 — A review: Poster of a Girl, Revue Emmanuelle. Author: Catherine Guiral & Sarah Vadé
n° 13 — A curatorial work: Graphic Design in the White Cube by Peter Bil’ak. Author: Lise Brosseau
n° 14 — A series of posters: CDDB Théâtre de Lorient by M/M (Paris). Author: Étienne Hervy
n° 15 — The work done everyday: the Mucem. Authors: Manon Bruet and Thomas Petitjean. + Questions from Spassky Fischer to Experimental Jetset, Bureau Mirko Borsche, Cornel Windlin, OK-RM, Mevis & van Deursen, Strobo, Roosje Klap, Studio Dumbar.