Gerd Arntz was the German artist and graphic designer responsible for creating the pictograms of Isotype, The International System of TYpographic Picture Education developed by Viennese social scientist and philosopher Otto Neurath. Isotype was a means of visually representing complex statistical information - the generic pictograms were typically used to illustrate stylized charts explaining economic and political data. Isotype marked the inception of modern visual statistics, establishing a clear means of communicating to ordinary people esoteric information that was often difficult to understand. In addition to the uniform human symbols, Arntz created pictograms for ships, automobiles, food, plants and factories. Among the over 4000 symbols Arntz designed were these, my favorites, unsurprisingly: images of animals wild and domestic.
These are wonderful images, and, quite unlike the majority of human figures he created, vivid and dynamic. Not only are they examples of good design but they're cheerful and deserve to be seen. With a little cardstock and some thread, I fashioned this mobile of woodland creatures - Rabbit, Squirrel, Frog, Mouse.
If you're interested in seeing more of Arntz's work, the Gerd Arntz Web Archive is the place to start. There, you can also download the Gerd Arntz Memory App which is indeed a very pleasant brain-enhancing distraction. And do spend some time meandering around the Gerd Arntz Archive from the Museum of the Hague. Here are a few images to tempt you...
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