A gorgeous facsimile of an ultrarare, canonical volume from the
pioneer of infographics, analyzing "fundamental trends in the social,
political and economic life of humanity"
Otto Neurath's famous Modern Man in the Making, first published by
Alfred A. Knopf in 1939, captures and describes the state of the world
in the 1930s by using text and figurative illustrations. From 1925 on,
Neurath and his team had worked on a new visual language termed
"Isotype" (International System of Typographic Picture Education). At a
time that saw new mass media making hitherto unthinkable amounts of
information available, Neurath felt the need for a systematic
visualization explaining facts, statistical data and comparative numbers
in simple ways. The book can be seen as one of the most influential
predecessors of today's infographics. In the visuals, each symbol and
color represents a certain group of objects or people, often compared
repetitively over a certain time span. The topics covered in the book
include diverse social issues of the time like mortality, health,
employment, trade, education, mobility, migration and demographics.
Modern Man in the Making shows Neurath's democratic endeavor to make
knowledge intelligible and available to all. It is a reminder of graphic
art's ability to inform and create context instead of presenting
aesthetic qualities only. The book has inspired generations of designers
and has led to sometimes peculiar imitations and further developments.
Lars Müller Publishers is making this pivotal historical picture-text
book available as a facsimile in the series XX The Century of Print.
