Mike Abbink

Profile

In August 2020, Mike joined IBM Software as Executive Creative Director, focused on the Carbon Design System expansion and working closely with design leadership to promote and enable design excellence across IBM digital experiences. Previously, Mike spent five and a half years as the Executive Creative Director with IBM Brand Experience and Design — a team dedicated to brand innovations, strategies, and visual expression. Mike’s most influential projects include the design of the IBM Plex® corporate typeface, the IBM Design Language, and its core visual elements: animation, data visualization, iconography, illustration, IT architecture diagrams, photography, and typography, with guidance and the website. And the redesign of the Carbon Design System.

Abbink’s career began in 1996 at MetaDesign in San Francisco, working with Nike on strategy and visual concepts for Niketown Honolulu and Nike stores in Vienna, Melbourne, and Toronto. Mike then co-founded the agency Method, where he served as Creative Director and worked with clients such as Adobe, Autodesk, Gucci, and MoMA. His extensive experience continued with his work as Design Director at Apple Computer, Creative Director at Wolff Olins, Creative Director at Saffron Consultants, and Executive Creative Director at the Museum of Modern Art. Clients included Adobe, Apollo Tyres, Citibank, Belkin, GE, Goldman Sachs, Gucci, IDEO, Knoll, Microsoft, MoMA, Mozilla, Nike, Nokia, Product(RED), PwC, Swiss Re, and Visa.

Abbink has received numerous prestigious international awards for graphic and typeface design, including the most recent Red Dot Award for the Carbon Design System, and a Pencil Award from the D&AD Awards, 2020 for IBM Plex Arabic, and the TDC 64 2018 Judges Choice award for the IBM Plex typeface family. He holds a BFA in graphic design and packaging from the Art Center College of Design. In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor at the San Francisco Academy of Art, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a guest critic at Yale’s graduate design program.

Contact

mike@mikeabbink.com
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Capabilities

Brand identity
Brand strategy
Design systems
Website design
Exhibition design
Guidelines
Packaging
Type design
Wayfinding

Awards

Client experience