In the following years, companies applied the principles of corporate identity and corporate design to increase awareness and recognition by consumers and differentiation from competitors. Olivetti became famous for its attention to design through their corporate design activities. In 1936 Olivetti hired Giovanni Pintori in their publicity department and promoted Marcello Nizzoli from the product design department to develop design in a comprehensive corporate philosophy. In 1956, inspired by the compelling brand character of Olivetti, Thomas Watson, Jr., CEO of IBM, retained American architect and industrial designer Eliot Noyes to develop a corporate-wide IBM Design Program consisting of coherent brand-design strategy together with a design management system to guide and oversee the comprehensive brand identity elements of: products, graphics, exhibits, architecture, interiors and fine art. This seminal effort by Noyes, with his inclusion of Paul Rand and Charles Eames as consultants, is considered to be the first comprehensive corporate design program in America.Bruce, G., (2006) Eliot Noyes, London: Phaidon Press Limited. Up to and during the 1960s, debates in the design community were focused on ergonomics, functionalism, and corporate design, while debates in management addressed Just in time, Total quality management, and product specification. The main proponents of design management at that time were AEG, Bauhaus, HfG Ulm, the British Design Council, Deutscher Werkbund, Olivetti, IBM, Peter Behrens, and Walter Paepcke.
