Tom Hardy (born 1946) is an American design strategist, Professor of Design Management at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).Catalog, Savannah College of Art and Design, 2015–2016. Programs of Study: School of Design, Design Management Program: Faculty, pp.100–03 and former head of the Corporate IBM Design Program.Aldersey-Williams, H., (1992) World Design: Nationalism and Globalism in Design, New York: Rizzoli, pp.155, 170, 172 As corporate design advisor to Samsung Electronics (1996–2003) Hardy was instrumental in creating a new brand-design ethos: "Balance of Reason & Feeling",Cain, G, (2020) Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, New York: Currency, pp.113–116 and building global brand equity through use of design strategy and design management.Chung, K.; Hardy, T.; So, S., ″Strategic Realization , Design Management Journal, Winter 2000, pp.65–9Chung, K.; Freeze, K., "Design Strategy at Samsung Electronics: Becoming a Top-Tier Company″, Design Management Institute Case Study – Harvard Business School Publishing, 2008, p.8 While at IBM (1970–1992), he was an award-winning industrial designer and later served as corporate head of the IBM Design Program responsible for worldwide brand-design identity.Nussbaum, B., ″Hot Products: Smart Design is the Common Thread″, Business Week, June 7, 1993, pp.5, 6Bruce, M.; Jennaker, B., (1998) Management of Strategic Alliances, Sakakibara, K., New York: John Wiley & Sons, Chapter 4. His leadership contributed to the revitalization of IBM's brand image via differentiated design such as the arguably influential ThinkPad.Hardy, T., "Rebuilding Trust: Design Saves the Brand″, Innovation, Summer 1998, pp.39–43Sakakibara, K., "IBM ThinkPad 700C Notebook Computer Case″, Centre for Design Management – London Business School, 1994, pp.25–9, 30–9, 40

Early life and education Hardy's early life was spent in Alabama,DesignAlabama: "Design200", 2019 where he graduated from Hueytown High School in 1964 and pursued his undergraduate education in industrial design at Auburn University (1964–1970)"Student Designers Present New Concepts for Ocean Hardware and Systems", Armco Steel Corporation, Middletown, OH, 1969, pp.7, 8, 11 under Eva Pfeil (German) and Walter Schaer (Swiss), former students at the Ulm School of Design in Germany.Lindinger, H., (1991), Ulm Design: The Morality of Objects, Cambridge: The MIT Press, p.133Spitz, R. (2002) The Ulm School of Design: A View Behind the Foreground, Fellbach: Edition Axel Menges, pp.140, 146, 201, 207, 211–12, 431–2, 438, 441, 453 During his graduate work in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science at Georgia Institute of Technology (1995–1996), he consulted with Georgia Tech to create CoLab, a multi-disciplinary innovation laboratory that integrated engineering, marketing and industrial design for industry-sponsored projects.Bullock, W., (2012) Sustaining Sustainable Design Innovation, IDSA Education Symposium, Boston, p.6Bullock, W., Reeder, K., Thomas, J., (2014) PIRL: Innovation and Research – Opportunities for Interactive Education , IDSA Education Symposium, Austin, p.7

Career

IBM Early in his career, Hardy was the industrial designer of numerous IBM products, including the original IBM Personal Computer introduced in 1981.28th Annual Design Review, I.D. Magazine, Designers' Choice: IBM Personal Computer, 1982, p.37Markis S., ″A 25-Year Trip on the Silicon Highway″ , The Edmonton Journal, August 26, 2006. During the 1970s, he also designed advanced industrial design concepts for 'single user computers' during the infancy of personal computing.Atkinson, P, (2013) DELETE: A Design History of Computer Vapourware , London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 62–3, 66–8, 70, 73–4, 76–9, 86–8, 90–1, 138, 140 His work included a human-centered design model in 1973 to complement the IBM engineering prototype of SCAMP dubbed by PC Magazine as "the world's first personal computer".SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable), a prototype name for an IBM advanced microcomputer made in 1973 Friedl, Paul J., "SCAMP: The Missing Link in the PCs Past", PC Magazine, PC 2, No. 6, November, 1983, pp.190–7 Examples of Hardy's advanced PC concepts are published in the book: DELETE: A Design History of Computer Vapourware.

As corporate head of the IBM Design Program, Hardy directed worldwide brand-design identity operations in concert with designers Paul Rand and Richard Sapper.Heller, S., (1999) Paul Rand, London: Phaidon Press, Limited, pp.149–50, 158Brandes, U., (1993), Richard Sapper:Tools for Life, Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, pp.145–6Olivares, J., (2016) Richard Sapper, London: Phaidon Press, Limited, p.77 His work has been cited in numerous publications, including a London Business School Case Study that documented Hardy's role in development of the first IBM ThinkPad notebook computer (1992) together with a differentiated product personality strategy. This work focused on providing more human-centric character to help revitalize IBM's brand image in the 1990s.

Design strategist Later an independent consultant upon retiring from IBM in 1992, Hardy's work with Samsung Electronics (1996–2003) involved creating a strategic brand-design approach of duality: "Balance of Reason and Feeling", while integrating a comprehensive design management system and innovation strategy into the corporate culture.Nussbaum, B., "The Hungriest Tiger", Business Week, June 2, 1997, p.99Delaney, M.; Hardy, T.; McFarland, J.; Yoon, G., ″Global Localization″, Innovation, Summer 2002, pp.46–9 His introduction of brand-design infrastructure elements that were definable, repeatable, measurable, scalable and actionable has been cited in business publications as strategic assets that resulted in an identity for Samsung that helped elevate the company's global brand image and brand equity value.

As a methodology for Hardy's consulting work, he developed the Verbal-Visual Framework (VVF), a brand-design management tool that identifies symbolic value. VVF builds emotional brand connections and trust with customers, together with guiding contextual brand-design personality across products, packaging, and communications to ensure cross-modal brand alignment.Farhoomad, A., Vishwanath, D., "Samsung Electronics: Innovation and Design Strategy", Asia Case Study Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, 2009, pp.6, 16Bhoir, N, Dutta, S., Kundu, K., Lodh, D., Pramanick, P., "Samsung Electronics: Success by Design", Kohinoor Business School: Mumbai, 2008, p.5Nussbaum, B., "The Hungriest Tiger", Business Week, June 2, 1997, p.99Delaney, M.; Hardy, T.; McFarland, J.; Yoon, G., ″Global Localization″, Innovation, Summer 2002, pp.46–9

Educator

Hardy currently serves as Professor of Design Management and Graduate Coordinator at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and has conducted corporate executive education workshops on Design thinking and Scenario planning for companies such as Porsche,Annual and Sustainability Report of Porsche AG 2018, p. 64 Steelcase,Steelcase: "How Will Artificial Intelligence Shape Our World?", 2018and Turkcell,.

Contributions and recognition

Government

In 1992, Hardy was invited by the U.S. presidential transition team to participate as a member of President Bill Clinton's Roundtable on Design.Brown, P., "Political Design? Well, Yes." The New York Times, December 10, 1992. The purpose of the event was to create ideas on how innovative design can contribute to America's competitiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness.Perlman, C.; Sorkin, M.; Woodward, S., ″Dear Mr. President: Answering Clinton's Call for a Design Strategy in America″, I.D. Magazine, March – April, 1993, p.2 Following the Roundtable on Design, he was selected to testify before the 103rd Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology as to the importance of design innovation in commercialization of technologies and U.S. competitiveness.″Establishment of a Design Council in the Department of Commerce″, Hearing Before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, U.S House of Representatives: 103rd Congress, Second Session. June 21, 1994, pp.184–8 Hardy also participated in another government design initiative in 1993 as Chair of a National Endowment for the Arts' Design Program working group to propose a White House Council on Design."A Proposal for a White House Council on Design: A Strategy to Harness the Power of Design", National Endowment for the Arts Design Program, June 1994, pp.8, 9, 24 In 2000, he was appointed to the Presidential Design Awards Jury for Federal Design Achievement in Graphic Design and Industrial/Product Design."Presidential Design Awards 2000" by General Services Administration and National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 2000, p.31

Hardy has also been involved in other nation-related projects, such as 2013 field research for developing the 'ThaiWorks' platform, a Thai initiative in context of creative economic development for Northern Thailand.

Brand-design leadership and product design

The 2007 anniversary issue of PC Magazine highlighted Hardy's management leadership role in the original IBM ThinkPad development process and deemed him 'Innovator of the Year 1992'. In 2016, two products directly influenced by Hardy during his IBM career were selected by Time Magazine as being among "The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time". They are: (#5) the first IBM Personal Computer 5150 and (#21) the IBM ThinkPad 700C. The 50 products were cited by Time as "The tech that forever changed the way we live, work and play".Eadicicco, L, Fitzpatrick, A., Howorth, C., Luckerson, V., Peckham, M., Pullen, J. P., Raab, J., Vella. M. " The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time″ Time, May 3, 2016.

In the 2023 documentary film "Modernism, Inc." role as former head of the Corporate IBM Design Program, Hardy reflected on IBM Design Program history in context of when Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand and Charles Eames were the corporate design consultants and their leadership transformed the brand image of IBM through design.

The following are awards for Hardy's industrial design: Industrial Designers Society of America Gold IDEA – 1980 (USA) Premio SMAU Innovation Award – 1977 (Italy) iF Product Design Award – 1983 (Germany) I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review Awards – 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983 (USA) See also IBM 5120

Notes

References

External links Tom Hardy Portrait – Photo Credit: Peter Arnell Design 200: Influencers from Alabama website Samsung Design History SCAD Design Management Program website Profile on Verbal-Visual Framework website 'Modernism, Inc.' Documentary Trailer