Task 1

Isotype, is a system of graphics that was developed in Vienna between 1925 and 1935 by the Social and Economic Museum of Vienna. The letters in the word Isotype stand for International System Of TYpographic Picture Education, and the idea of this method is to show social, technological, biological and historical connections in a pictorial form. The founding director of the museum was a man named Otto Neurath, and he was the initiator and chief theorist of the Vienna Method; ‘Vienna Method’ being the original term until the key practitioners were forces to leave Vienna by the Austrian fascism.

The primary task of Isotype was to inform the people of Vienna about their city in an informational graphic medium. The information graphics that were produced were very simplified forms of images so that not a great amount of  detail is there to be remembered and so making them easier to remember. The aim was to “represent social facts pictorially” bringing “dead statistics” back to life by making them visually attractive and memorable. The museum stands by a phrase that is very important in its truth, which is, “To remember simplified pictures is better than to forget accurate figures”

This is a great example of and Isotype design. It shows what makes up a town in simplified icon form such as crops to show agriculture, and a veriety of vehicles to resemble motoring and so on. 

This Information poster has been designed to show the statistics from the Great War. the Isotype figures each resemble 1 million soldiers and so it is easily worked out to find the amount of soldiers who were killed and those returning from war unhurt and injured.