We see them on WC doors, airports, hospitals, convention centers, stadiums and city streets. Pictorams, those graphical symbols that transcend language barriers, have become an important tool for visual communication.

The need for pictograms is greater when audiences who do not speak the same language converge. The have become a universal language of sign and symbols. While their universality is often questioned, pictograms have managed to spread everywhere.

One of names that always come up when discussing pictograms is that of German designer Otl Aicher (1922-1991). As part of the design work for the visual image concept of the XXth Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, he created a systematically structured ‘sign’ language: a complex and comprehensive series of symbols that helped guide Munich’s international visitors. His pictograms are now sold as a system by the German lighting company ERCO (see www.piktogramm.com).

Another collection of pictograms has been developed in the 70’s by a group of designers in the US (members of AIGA, the American Institute for Graphic Arts) in cooperation with the Department of Transport.

A first set of 34 symbols was published in 1974, and received one of the first Presidential Design Awards; 16 more symbols were added in 1979. These copyright-free symbols have become the standard for off-the-shelf symbols in the catalogues of U.S. sign companies. They are now available on the web for free download.