I started this project by finding sources of information on otto Neurath, I found Gerd Arntz’s Isotype picture dictionary, and Marie Neurath’s book, “The Transformer”, which detailed the principles of Isotype design, the history of the project, and the designs which it later influenced.

I first researched Neurath’s background. He initially studied economics, and joined the Vienna Circle of Philosophers. He opened various museums of economics and history in Vienna, and his interest in both statistics and philosophy inspired him to develop the Isotype picture langauge, as a method to easily convey statistics in a memorable way to all audiences. Many philosophers at the time also tried to create universal languages, for example the constructed language of Esperanto, but Neurath’s Isotype is more effective for the layperson, as they do not need any learning to understand it.

He took inspiration from heiroglyphics and children’s books, as they effectively convey stories using simple forms.

Sketches

I initially created these eight quick sketches to generate ideas. Initially, these seemed rather basic, but as I created more, I needed to try new ideas, so that I did not repeat elements. For example, I laid out images in a grid format, and most importantly, laying the content out in the shape of an Isotype graph.

From this graph idea, I created this sketch, the bottom part of this helped to inform how my final section on the collaborators in the Isotype project would look.

I then began to create my digital design draft. Seeing the layout on screen, I was able to figure out what would work and what would not. The vertical graph layout was very difficult to create in a way which the viewer can easily navigate, therefore I placed it on its side, so the text had space to spread across the screen. I also experimented with filling the borders of the screen with Isotype icons, but this seemed too cramped, and the content seemed crushed, therefore I removed these from this position, and instead created an image from them, which I used to break up the content.

I chose to use Josefin Sans for the headings and quotes, as it is very reminiscent of the font used by Neurath and his collaborators for the Isotype charts and diagrams, and Cardo for the body text, due to its readability, as it is a long piece of text, so the viewer must be able to read through the site until the end without becoming bored or strained.

I chose four colours for my palette. The header and footer is the orange which Neurath has used in various Isotype symbols and maps, the body content is another colour which is used in the maps of his book “Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, bildstatistisches Elementarwerk”, and the subsection is a **darker variation of the same colour, using white text, to separate it from the main content.