Whether they are large or small, corporations need to remind their public who they are, what they are doing, and how well they are doing it. Even the venerable Wall Street banking firm of J.P. Morgan needs to assert itself so the public remembers its existence and service. Corporate communications serve this function, and the design of these messages goes a long way toward establishing company image.

Usually corporate communications include identity programs and annual reports, but there are also other opportunities to communicate the corporate message. Since 1918, J.P. Morgan has published a unique guide that keeps up with the changing world of commerce and travel. The World Holiday and Time Guide covers over two hundred countries, and keeps the traveler current with twenty-four time zones. In the Guide, the international businessperson can find easy-to-read tables and charts giving the banking hours as well as opening and closing business times for weekdays and holidays. Specific cultural holidays, such as Human Rights Day (December 10) in Namibia and National Tree Planting Day (March 23) in Lesotho are included. The seventy-five-year history of the Guide is also an informal chronicle of world change. It has described the rise and decline of Communism and the liberation of colonial Africa and Asia; today it keeps up with the recent territorial changes in Europe. The covers of the Guide invite the user to celebrate travel and cultural diversity; the interior format is a model of clarity sand convenience.

In-house design groups have two functions: they provide a design service for their company and they maintain the corporate image. Because projects are often annual, responsibility for them moves around the design group, helping to sustain creativity and to generate a fresh approach to communication. Consequently, the Guide is the work of several designers. To work in corporate communications, designers need skills relating to typography, information design, and print design.

My early exposure to a design studio made me aware of the design profession as an opportunity to apply analytical abilities to an interest in the fine arts. Graduate design programs made it possible for me to delve more deeply into the aspects of design I found personally interesting. Since then, the nature of the design profession, which constantly draws the designer into a wide range of subjects and problems, has continued to interest me in each new project. It's been this opportunity to satisfy personal interests while earning a living that ha made design my long-term career choice. -Won Chung