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, collaborating 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

Cooper Hewitt Collection, 2024
IBM Plex® Sans and Mono acquired
into the permanent collection
by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian
Design Museum

Red Dot Award, 2022
Brands & communications
UI & UX
Carbon Design System

50 Books/50 Covers
AIGA, 2021
Winner
As We Rise

D&AD Award, 2020
Wood Pencil Award
Type Design
IBM Plex Sans Arabic

TDC 65 2019
Judges Choice
PAN—2: La Belle et la Bête

Granshan, 2019
Type Design Competition
2nd Prize
IBM Plex Sans Arabic,
Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew

TDC 64 2018
Judges Choice
IBM Plex Typeface

TDC 61 2015
Judges Choice
Brando Typeface

TDC 61 2015
Certificate of Excellence
GE Sans & GE Serif

ISTD Award, 2011
Certificate of Excellence
FF Milo Serif

AtypI Letter.2
Competition, 2011
FF Milo Serif

ISTD Award, 2001
Premier Award
Typeface design:
FF Kievit

100 Show, 2000
American Center for Design
Method website

100 Show, 1999
American Center for Design
Jim Pomeroy Catalog
New Langton Arts,
San Francisco

Design USA: 20, 1999
AIGA
Fuse98 Catalog

100 Show, 1998
American Center for Design
Fuse98 Catalog

100 Show, 1997
American Center for Design
IDEO website

Client experience

Adobe
Apollo Tyres
Autodesk
Belkin
Citibank
GE
Goldman Sachs
Gucci
IDEO

King & Spalding
Knoll
Microsoft
MoMA
Mozilla
Nike
Nokia
PwC
Swiss Re
Visa