Gerd Arntz- Isotypes

Like the article states, Gerd Arntz was a socially inspired and politically committed artist. Otto Neurath, a social scientist and founder of the Museum of Society and Economy, noticed his work and decided that Arntz's clear-cut style suited his goals perfectly. "He needed a designer who could make very simplistic signs, pictograms that could summarize a subject at a glance." Arntz and Neurath worked together to develop Neurath's method that became known as ISOTYPE, International System Of TYpographic Picture Education. Arntz designed over 4,000 different pictograms and abstracted illustrations for this system that symbolized keydata from industry, demographics, politics and economy. They wanted images that were easy to understand for people that had problems reading and that would be universally understood so that they would overcome language barriers and culture. "Their system became a world-wide emulated example of what we now term: infographics.

I found some isotypes that I liked because, to me, they look like they have a lot of detail without really having a lot of detail.

I like the way that just a few placed bubbles gives the feeling of a bunch of foaming soap. Also, I like how just three vertical lines give the feeling of water flowing from a faucet.

I like the detail of the stacks of paper on the table, the man's tie and the pencils in their hands.


I like the detail of the "travel" isotype by Arntz. The man's clothing has a lot of detail in a simplistic way along with the chair that he is sitting on. I like the feeling of moving forward that is accomplished by putting the man in the chair on an arrow.