On the influence of Isotype

Robin Kinross | University of Reading

Isotype has been a purely historical phenomenon for about ten years. It proposed a system for presenting information in visual form; but how can designers now learn from this work ? It is argued that Isotype cannot be fully articulated as method, and that it should be understood rather as approach. Such an understanding must come from 'authentic ' historical presentation, which avoids imposing current concepts. Some inappropriate treatments are cited. But, as the revival of the 'transformer7 suggests, Isotype can still be a fruitful influence. To help further study, the documentation of the subject is surveyed.

Published online: 01 January 1981
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.2.2.06kin

Cited by

Cited by 8 other publications

Bresnahan, Keith

2011. “An Unused Esperanto”: Internationalism and Pictographic Design, 1930–70. Design and Culture 3:1 ► pp. 5 ff.

Forsythe, Alex

2011. The human factors of the conspicuous Babel fish; dyadic referencing through icons. Journal of Visual Literacy 30:2 ► pp. 91 ff.

Golec, Michael J.

2013. Poster power: rural electrification, visualization, and legibility in the United States. History and Technology 29:4 ► pp. 399 ff.

Hsu, Tsu Fan & Chao Ming Yang

2014. Classification analysis on proximate contexts from graphic symbols. Information Design Journal 21:1 ► pp. 5 ff.

Kasper, M.

1990. Agit-Prop. Rethinking Marxism 3:2 ► pp. 111 ff.

Muurlink, Olav, Anthony M. Gould & Jean-Etienne Joullié

2020. Clustered Iconography: A Resurrected Method for Representing Multidimensional Data. Sociological Methods & Research ► pp. 004912412091494 ff.

Nemeth, Elisabeth

2019. In Neurath Reconsidered [Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 336], ► pp. 117 ff.

Perks, Sue

2015. In The International Handbooks of Museum Studies, ► pp. 389 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.