Isotype: representing social facts pictorially

Burke, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0391-3740 (2009) Isotype: representing social facts pictorially. Information Design Journal, 17 (3). pp. 211-223. ISSN 0142-5471 doi: 10.1075/idj.17.3.06bur

Abstract/Summary

In developing Isotype, Otto Neurath and his colleagues were the first to systematically explore a consistent visual language as part of an encyclopedic approach to representing all aspects of the physical world. The pictograms used in Isotype have a secure legacy in today's public information symbols, but Isotype was more than this: it was designed to communicate social facts memorably to less educated groups, including schoolchildren and workers, reflecting its initial testing ground in the socialist municipality of Vienna during the 1920s. The social engagement and methodology of Isotype are examined here in order to draw some lessons for information design today.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/16340
Identification Number/DOI	10.1075/idj.17.3.06bur
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Typography & Graphic Communication
Uncontrolled Keywords	Isotype, Otto Neurath, pictograms, symbols, transformer, visual communication, graphic design, Red Vienna, decision making, economics
Publisher	John Benjamins
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