Pictogram System

案内用ピクトグラム / 1964– / Style / Information Design

Unified symbol systems that name facilities and actions without language. Tokyo 1964 systematized sport and wayfinding symbols; the AIGA/DOT transportation set became the public-domain world standard.

Pictogram System — AIGA/DOT symbol "Restaurant" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — AIGA/DOT symbol "Restaurant" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Pictogram System — AIGA/DOT symbol "Toilets" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — AIGA/DOT symbol "Toilets" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Pictogram System — AIGA/DOT symbol "Coffee Shop" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — AIGA/DOT symbol "Coffee Shop" — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Geometrized human figures
Uniform stroke weight
Consistency as a system
Independence from language

Best used for

Guiding visitors of many languages through a venue without words
Turning facility or sport categories into marks legible from a distance

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Dictionary entry

Type: Draw every mark on one grid and stroke weight, human proportions shared
Composition: Fit all symbols to a square frame with matched margins and optical center
Material: Single color silhouettes, minimum size and viewing distance decided first
Caution: Drawing each mark as a picture lets stroke and proportion drift, the set stops reading as a system, and meanings swap at a distance.
Further study: Masaru Katzumie and Tokyo 1964 / Otl Aicher's Munich 1972 / AIGA/DOT, 1974

Related entries

Isotype (アイソタイプ)Same Information Design lineage.Compare Pictogram System and Isotype
Schematic Transit Diagram (スキーマティック路線図)Same Information Design lineage.Compare Pictogram System and Schematic Transit Diagram

Often confused with

Isotype (アイソタイプ)compare

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