Isotype

Isotype (V&A)

I stumbled across this exhibition at the V & A - it only occupies 2 smallish rooms, but is really fascinating. Isotype (International System of TYpographic Picture Education) is a system of showing complex information in pictorial form. It was originated by Otto Neurath in Vienna in the 1920s and was quickly exported to the newly formed USSR and to other countries, including Britain.

Isotype involves creating a self-explanatory chart, in which images represent items (such as workers, cars, factory outputs etc.) but without increasing the size of the image for the size of the output. Thus one ‘man’ image might mean 50 workers, but instead of a bigger man for 100 workers, two men would be used. The beauty of this approach is that information is not only easy to understand, but also easy to mathematically convey, without the need for lots of figures and so on. 

Isotype developed into a whole system, and because everyone at that time loved the idea of simplifying everything and making it more mechanical, it was only a short while before the makers of Isotype met the makers of BASIC (British American Standard International Commercial) English, which had reduced the dictionary to 850 basic English words. The resulting work: Basic by Isotype is no doubt a classic, but costs £858.85 on the internet, which would be represented by quite a lot of little round coins on an Isotype chart. 

Isotype spread around the world and has had immense influence in graphic design and information design. My favourite chart in the exhibition, which I can’t find on the internet, sadly, was the one which depicted animal lifespans by using a long curvy line from the top of the page to the bottom. At the start of the line was a mosquito (the most dangerous creature on earth) and midway was man. Right at the end of the line, as if winning a very long race (150 years), was the tortoise.

This exhibition had some really fascinating exhibits, and I think anyone would find it interesting. The ability of Isotypes to convey information in an interesting and accessible way does half the work for the curators, really, so very little extra information was needed. I did wish, however, that the gift shop sold reproduction charts etc.