Next time you go to the man's or women's toilet following the little distinctive symbol on the door, think about Otto Neurath (1882-1945) and Gerd Arntz (1900-1988).
They are the parents of a visual language that uses pictograms (=pictorial symbols for a word or phrase) as mode of communication, which led to the creation of an international visual language that balances at the frontiers of words and images.
"Words divide, images unite.."
This is Neurath's motto, and the point of departure for the Lovely Language exhibition organized at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.
The exhibition was staged as part of the Utrecht Manifest 2007, the 2nd Biennale for Social Design, and was designed by the Dutch Designer Ed Annink.
Stratos, a fellow colleague of mine got the chance to visit this exhibition during his stay in The Netherlands, and brought back the photos I post here at my blog.
I find the design of the exhibition very suitable for the topic and I like the fact that it uses all 3 dimensions as its canvas.
