The Noyes Office
The Noyes office, in New Canaan, CT, was relatively small—6 architects, and 6 industrial designers, plus support staff. While Noyes oversaw both departments, he alone spearheaded the internal development of the major corporations, helping them to define their “Corporate Character.”
Eliot Noyes said:
"I had three things going: a full scale, if minuscule, office of architecture, an office of industrial design, and then this very interesting consulting business. I was terribly pleased because I always was a little unhappy about the business of being an architect who simply got a school here and something or other there; did one thing at a time. I had been, probably through the schooling days and my contact with Gropius, interested in the notion of getting industry involved in recognizing its opportunities and even its responsibilities in relation to architecture and design and the public generally. So, to have whole companies to persuade into doing things a special way was a very unusual situation.”
“This rather loose kind of a team brought to bear on a situation a set of talents and skills literally unmatchable in any single design office in the world. So, what I and my various friends have been trying to do for these companies then is something much more than solving a lot of individual design problems. All of us, Rand, Eames, Geismar, and many others have been part of a generation or two of designers who grew up with many shared convictions and common ideals. It hasn’t always been easy to explain to these companies, however, just what it was that we were doing for them beyond just design.” a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Corporations for which the Noyes Office worked
Noyes with at the Eames Office, 1961 Clockwise from Right: Eliot Noyes, Deborah Sussman, Ray Eames, Eli Noyes, Charles Eames, and Unidentified. The Noyes Office worked closely with the Eames office on many projects.
Eliot Noyes Professional Stamps—Architecture and Industrial Design. The two disciplines were fully integrated in office projects. Add to those graphics and Corporate Consulting. The Noyes office was the only office with such extensive overlaps.
Eliot Noyes with a proposed model for Westinghouse’s 1960 World’s Fair pavilion. The spheres housed individual theaters, each screening a film of different branches of Westinghouse’s diverse enterprises—the purpose to show to the public Westinghouse’s extensive scope-- far broader than its best-known kitchen utilities branch.
Eliot Noyes with a wall of his diplomas and awards, 1960.
Eliot Noyes in front of the IBM Pavilion, San Antonio, Texas. 1968, with the redesigned IBM logo (by Paul Rand). The IBM corporate program integrated Graphics, Architecture, Industrial Design in the heart of the IBM corporate structure. The success of the program demonstrated to the corporate world that “Good Design is Good Business.”