Examining Inclusivity, Diversity and Universality in Visual Languages.
In 1936 Otto Neurath published ‘International Picture Language’, his seminal statement on Isotype, introducing Isotype to an international audience. The book epitomised his belief in a universal picture language that could communicate across borders, educational and social levels and clearly set out the mature iteration of the principles of Isotype which had been developing since he began work at the newly founded Social and Economic Museum in Vienna a decade earlier.
Today, Isotype is seen as one of the cornerstones of contemporary information design and echoes of Neurath’s work can be observed in standardised icon systems that are crucially important in the navigation of public and virtual spaces, and in their purest form, in the invention of new visual languages.
Symbol ’26: The Case for International Picture Language will seek to explore these echoes of Neurath’s system in contemporary society.
[This is part of the IIID VisionPlus Information Design Conference. Buy ticket(s).]