 His leadership contributed to the revitalization of IBM's brand image via differentiated design such as the iconic ThinkPad.Hardy's early life was spent in Alabama  where he graduated from Hueytown High School in 1964 and pursued his undergraduate education in industrial design at Auburn University (1964–1970)  under Eva Pfeil (German) and Walter Schaer (Swiss), former students at the famed Ulm School of Design in Germany.During his graduate work in the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Institute of Technology (1995-1996), he consulted with Georgia Tech to create CoLab, a unique multi-disciplinary innovation laboratory that integrated engineering, marketing and industrial design for industry-sponsored projects.