Future, Fortune, and the graphic design of information
- Submitting institution
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The University of Reading
: B - Typography and Graphic Communication
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory : B - Typography and Graphic Communication
- Output identifier
- 53282
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
-
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- Book title
- Information Design: Research and Practice
- Publisher
- Routledge
- ISBN
- 9781472430700
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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-
- Supplementary information
-
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This output investigates the design of graphic information in Future books and magazine (UK) and Fortune magazine (USA) in the years 1945 to 1949. It highlights work made by the Isotype Institute for Future under the direction of Otto and Marie Neurath and situates it in relation to work by Abram Games and F. H. K. Henrion, whose contributions of graphic information to Future were different in approach, style and strategy. Cognate work in Fortune under the art editorship of Will Burtin is discussed in a parallel account, drawing on examples by him and by others including György Kepes, Matthew Liebowitz, Alex Steinweiss and Ladislav Sutnar. Attention is drawn to links and relationships between to the two periodicals and the graphic information published in both. Further comparisons are made between underlying editorial and design strategies pursued by Otto Neurath (Isotype Institute) and Will Burtin. An argument is made for recognising the little-known innovations of Future alongside the long-acknowledged innovations of Fortune. The output presents new research in the analysis of graphic information in these two important mid-century periodicals, in comparing Isotype with the work of contemporary graphic designers in the UK and the USA, and in the interpretation of this work, in total, as indicative of editorial aims and strategies. The output reflects an important phase of graphic design history, at this time and in these contexts, and demonstrates rigour in its use and understanding of archival sources, in its careful assessment of designer aims and intentions, and in its integration and judicious analysis of visual evidence to support its arguments and conclusions.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -