Pictograms

A view from the drawing board or, what I have learned from Otto Neurath and Gerd Arntz (and jazz)

Nigel Holmes

This article sets out to discuss the practical development of pictograms and the thoughts that lead to their final visual shape. It explains the personal considerations that combine all issues that are related to making graphics, such as drawing, technique, conventions, and commercial aspects. The article explains how ISOTYPE and its designer Gerd Arntz influences current day-to-day work. By drawing parallels with jazz, different approaches to drawing graphics are shown and explained.

Keywords: graphical symbol, icon, pictogram

Published online: 17 January 2003
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.10.2.08hol

Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Dalbello, Marija & Anselm Spoerri

2006. Statistical representations from popular texts for the ordinary citizen, 1889–1914. Library & Information Science Research 28:1 ► pp. 83 ff.

Manuela Ribas & Marcel Pereira Pauluk

2014. In Proceedings of the 6th Information Design International Conference, ► pp. 1801 ff.

Wang, Regina W. Y. & I-Ning Liu

2016. In 2016 International Conference on Applied System Innovation (ICASI), ► pp. 1 ff.

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