International Business Machines (IBM)

Glossary of the Computer: Poster advertising the IBM film, “The Glossary of the Computer”, directed by Charles and Ray Eames with music by Elmer Bernstein.

Charles and Ray Eames are two of the most celebrated modernist designers of the 20th century. They were to direct several informational short films for IBM at a time when the inner workings of a computer were an unfathomable mystery to most people. As typified by the promotional poster, their presentation was clear, straightforward, eschewed jargon and was under-pinned with a sly sense of humour.

The choice of Elmer Bernstein as composer is a testament to how seriously IBM and the Eames wished to reach out beyond the tiny number of people who then knew anything about computers. Over a fifty-year career, Bernstein composed over 150 original film scores including for The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Ghostbusters, Trading Places and The Blues Brothers being just some of the most memorable.

It is indicative of how far the computer has entered and transformed our lives in the last half-century, that one of the first words IBM felt needed to be defined and explained was “Computer” itself.