Words divide, pictures unite

Take a look around. You’ll probably see a lot of clustered information on display: street signs, warning boards, infographics, and icons. They’re everywhere. They tell us full stories using simple structures, conveying messages through patterns and images. But how do we communicate globally with consistency despite cultural differences?

By the beginning of the 20th century, social scientist Otto Neurath (Vienna, 1882) discussed ways to refine and expand the diffusion of information in his society. With his hybrid formation in Sociology and Economics, Professor Neurath claimed that Social Sciences should interact more with Math Sciences for higher standards of Objectivity. According to this, some information should not be conveyed strictly by words. Instead, it should combine words and a pictorial language to ensure better communication.

Along with his team, he started to work on a system to standardize the use of graphic language to convey information. In the context of social revolutions and transformation, the system should be explanatory to empower untutored audiences and enable them to understand complex concepts.

The ISOTYPE method may become one of the factors that will help to create a civilization where people share a common culture, and the gap between educated and uneducated people may disappear.
Otto Neurath, 1940.

Spreading the Symbols

The ISOTYPE method (International System of Typographic Picture Education) was applied initially in Austria. Later has become relevant and flourished through Europe while its creators (Otto, his wife Marie Neurath and the artist Gerd Arntz) fled from the Nazi Reich. The group wandered from the Netherlands, to UK, URSS and finally America.

When the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) created a sign system for the US Department of Transportation in 1976 the World had for the first time the publication of an international standard of pictograms. And it was obviously inspired by the ISOTYPE method.

The history of ISOTYPE is a perfect case study of the Modernist Movement and how things connect for an evolution of concepts worldwide. It’s a landmark, the pioneer method of visual communication with a direct impact on what we know today as Information Design.

Based on its range potential (and no discrimination of audience, age, education or nationality) this approach has been explored and evolved widely since then.

Neutral Communication

For instance, while designing a pictographic representation of a man, Neurath and Arntz wouldn’t consider naturalistic details — they’d instead capture the idea of human generality. Neurath said, «An ISOTYPE pictogram was an expression of neutrality, which could only be achieved through formal simplification.»

Among other important considerations Otto Neurath defended that the Humanization of Knowledge Through the Eye would be helpful in all fields of study and communication.

Already in the 21st century, it’s very interesting to consider how those ideas and concepts are prevailing. We’re diving more and more into a society of Data and Information which makes a fundamental discussion the use of systems to transmit messages correctly, with agility and coherence.

That’s why the study of the History of Design and Mass Communication always moves us forward. It empowers us with the awareness of our roles and responsibilities. As stated by the Brazilian historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, « History is not the imprisonment of the past. It is change, it is movement, it is transformation».

If you appreciate this, please consider sharing it. You’ll inspire me to produce more constantly, and believe me, my draft list here is huge! There will always be interesting people and materials from the past to be reintroduced into our daily lives — whether you’re into design or not. Thanks for your minutes 🙏🏻