Colette gave us a very broad and extensive talk about the subkect of Information Design, talking about a broad number of people however I am going to talk about one of those names. Otto Neurath, one could say that he is the founder of information design, he certainly is the founder of the Isotype System and undoubtedly one of the key figures in the history of information design.
Otto Neurath, born in Austria in 1882, died in England in 1945 sadly seeing non of his work come to completion. His work was continued on after he died by Marie Neurath, his 2nd wife who later died in the 1980's having completed and published Otto's work and herself written many children's books using the Isotype system.
Otto Neurath, born in Austria in 1882, died in England in 1945 sadly seeing non of his work come to completion. His work was continued on after he died by Marie Neurath, his 2nd wife who later died in the 1980's having completed and published Otto's work and herself written many children's books using the Isotype system.
It is the International System Of TYpographic Picture Education. It's the idea of communication without words. It's a global language using symbols and pictures to speak and communicate with people. Let's take a look at some of his work. I'm going to jump straign into a very specific example of Neurath's work, I get the sense that it has a style but it's done completely for information purposes. It's as if the style isn't as important as the actual fact, figures, processes, stats etc.
http://www.humantific.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image_04-450x600.jpg
http://www.humantific.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image_02-450x600.jpg
Here Otto is displaying information about the production of plastics and their properties, sounds like a boring science lesson to me but when you look at it it's strangely inviting and you find yourself wanting to learn wanting to see what the plastics are made from. I think this is for a few reasons.
1 - Curiosity. You want to see what symbols have been used to represent each element. This hooks you in
2 - Simplicity. It's designed in such a simple way that you don't feel bombarded with scientific nonsense, it's clear and concise, so you're not put off.
3 - Use of shape and colour. Your eye follows the process through cleaver use of arrows and shapes that flow into each other and through cleaver use of colour that again makes it simple to follow.
I had a go at creating my own in the same style. It requires a lot of skill to use the right kind of symbols. Hence a near lifetime spent working on such symbols.
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