ABSTRACT
A pioneer in many respects, Otto Neurath made contributions in the areas of socialist politics, political economy, sociology and social philosophy. Especially innovative, however, were his revolutionary ideas about communication based on the role of media in the making of modern man as a social technology for achieving socialist objectives. The starting point for the International System Of Typographic Picture Education (ISOTYPE) project was the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum founded in Vienna in 1924, and it ended with Neurath's death in Oxford in 1945, after fleeing The Hague when the Germans invaded Holland during the Second World War. In Vienna, Neurath's work was in the tradition of the science museums that were popular at the time. From them he adopted the idea of using for his exhibitions signs and tables, posters and even objects for hands-on experience. To reach a multitude of common people, the multiplication of display material made possible by the use of ISOTYPE icons was crucial.
