Otto Neurath and Gerd Arntz: Infographics and pictograms

In this interview it was said that social scientist Otto Neurath's interest in hieroglyphics led him to develop a system that helped people understand social and economic facts, all through using a minimum of words.

He collaborated with Gerd Arntz, a Vienna artist well known for his black and white woodcuts, to develop this system. Arntz style was simplistic and could be easily understood by ordinary people. His images sum up a subject in a single glance and were drawn with great precision. Neurath moulded his style into stick figures, which became the building blocks of his pictured statistics. 

(Above = examples of Arntz's woodcuts)

 

It is explained on gerdarntz.org that together the two, "designed pictograms to represent every aspect of life. (Arntz's) designs brought warmth, humanity and a political edge to an area of cool statistical detachment.”

Gerd Arntz designed around 4000 signs altogether, which symbolised key data from industry, demographics, politics and economy. These were created for the visual language Isotype (the International System Of Typographic Picture Education) created by Otto Neurath. Together, Neurath and Arntz wanted to create a system that could be understood even for those who could not read. They also wanted their visuals to be understood universally, overcoming barriers of language and culture. It says on the gerdarntz.org website, “Neurath and Arntz made extensive collections of visual statistics in this manner, and their system became a world-wide emulated example of what we now term: infographics."

Neurath and Arntz's designs also set the way for the modern use of information design. Now pictograms can be seen everywhere, signalling the bathroom, on warning signs and exit signs. These simplistic images are immediately understandable, even without adjoining text. They are carefully thought out, meaning that those of different cultures can still even understand the images, even when they cannot understand the text.

References:
http://colorcubic.com/2010/02/09/the-pictograms-of-gerd-arntz/
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/back-issues/creative-review/2011/march/gerd-arntz
http://www.gerdarntz.org/isotype/