How Symbolic.

The “International Typographic Style,” is discussed in chapter eighteen of Meggs’ History of Graphic design as a typographic style, derived from Swiss designers, which influenced design across the Western World. However, this typographic style did not communicate across a truly international audience without the introduction of pictograms.

Originally introduced during the Bauhaus were Gerd Arntz and Otto Neurath’s isotype pictographs. These pictographs used simple symbolic images used to convey certain amounts and types of people in graphic manner. In the way they were used, a supplemental text was needed in order to show the context of the information presented. With influence of modern design including Bauhaus and the Swiss’ International Typographic Style, the United States Department of Transportation commissioned the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1974 to create a set of symbols, which could transcend language barriers. A true international visual language was born from this project and can be seen all over the world, with slight modifications to accommodate differences in languages. The Olympic Games have also repeated the use of pictographs in order to surpass language barriers by having symbolic images represent different types of sports. 

National Parks Symbols

Department of Transportation Symbols

The use of the pictogram is ever so present in our modern society. We are bombarded with them on a daily basis whether we go to the airport, school, or the mall. We find them as icons on our “smart phones” and as playful images on t-shirts. They are easily recognizable and quick to register in our brains, but is this really a good thing? Could the constant use, or over use of pictograms be dumbing the population down?

 

Mike Judge is a writer and animator most notably known for his creation of Beavis and Butthead on MTV. He also created the well-known animated sitcom, King of the Hill. In 2006 Judge wrote, directed, and produced the movie, Idiocracy, a satirical comedy that explores the idea that only stupid people are breading. The protagonist, played by Luke Wilson, awakens in the future to find that he is the smartest man alive when in his time he was simply average. This future world in is plagued by advertisements catering to a population of invalids and in a scene in which he visits the doctor’s office, the nurse hovers over a keyboard with pictograms of a series of ailments. The images are hilarious as some of the ailments indicate death, yet the idea that person needs little intelligence to interpret them seems pretty dismal if this is the future.

Scene from Idiocracy 2006

 Sources
Meggs History of Graphic Design
AIGA
lardbiscuit.com
IMDB
wikipedia.org - Mike_Judge