Pictographs, pictograms, and isotypes

14 July 2008

I think we’re all very accustomed to the notion that public institutions use “neutral” symbols in their publications and signage. Unless it’s an art museum, that tends to mean the Department of Transportation Pictograms, produced in 1974 and 1979 by the AIGA Signs and Symbols Committee, which included Massimo Vignelli and Seymour Chwast.

I recently found a small booklet called 1000 Pictorial Symbols in the library, published in 1942. What’s striking is just how cartoony and lively the designs are, amplifying characteristics like stereotypical clothing and even gaits/postures. These were intended for graphic representations of an industrial economy, and are accompanied by a striking idealism about their use in the approaching war:

We do not claim any completeness for this collection of symbols, and we do not claim that any one of these symbols is the last word in symbol design. All we hope to achieve in this book is to furnish some additional material for a picture language of the future, a means of communication which will overcome differences in language and educational levels.

…

In times of national stress evergrowing tasks face those engaged in Public Information. A whole nation has been shaken out of the grooves in which it “normally” runs. Millions are moved from familiar surroundings to join the army, to work in factories. They must adapt themselves to new ways of living. Shortages develop and must be explained to be accepted; substitutes appear — and their use and limitations must be made understood. Air raid precautions require millions of people to learn new forms of behaviour. We hope that this book will help in the education work needed for national survival

— Rudolf Modley, President
PICTOGRAPH CORPORATION

These are of course ancestors (or cousins?) of the Isotypes designed by Austrian/German team of Otto Neurath and Gerd Arnzt. See this Cabinet magazine article for more.