Style combination · Contrasts

Data Humanism × Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Isotype fixes one standard sign per thing and counts by repeating it so anyone can read the chart; data humanism invents a new code for each dataset and asks for slow reading. Choose Isotype for public information, data humanism for portraits of particular lives.

From the research on Data Humanism

Mix them and make something Data Humanism Isotype Pictorial Statistics

A cream-coloured poster titled “A DAY TOGETHER” charts hours 6 through 23 with rows of repeated black, red, blue and yellow pictograms representing work, sleep, meals, travel and leisure. A caption and activity legend sit beneath the densely packed timetable. — AI-generated by Stylogeny from the recipe below, and checked against it: the type from Data Humanism, the form from Isotype Pictorial Statistics, the composition from Data Humanism. Not a real or historical work.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Data Humanism Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Type from Data Humanism: Hand-lettering
Colour from Isotype Pictorial Statistics: Flat fields
Limited spot colours
Form from Isotype Pictorial Statistics: Pictogram
Stylised figuration
Composition from Data Humanism: Layered information
Repetition & rhythm
Surface from Data Humanism: Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Data Humanism

Grid

Caveat, standing in for The designer's own handwriting in pen or pencil for titles, legends and annotations (the Dear Data postcards; the red handwritten script of Lupi's Print manifesto, 2017)

Text · Isotype Pictorial Statistics

A method of visual education developed by Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath (Reidemeister) and Gerd Arntz in Red Vienna from 1925, which turns statistics into rows of identical pictograms where a greater quantity is shown by more signs, never by bigger ones. Continued in The Hague and Oxford until 1971, its standardised symbols, flat colours and sans-serif captions laid the foundations of modern information graphics and pictogram systems.

Jost; Isotype Pictorial Statistics used Futura and Gerd Arntz's linocut pictogram set (c. 4,000 signs), used like a fount of picture-type

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Isotype Pictorial Statistics, with a counter-accent from Data Humanism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Data Humanism Isotype Pictorial Statistics

#f2ecdf ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#c8372d accent · 18%
#f2c14e accent · 14%
#2c5aa0 accent · 10%
#e0574a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ecdf;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #c8372d;
  --accent-2: #f2c14e;
  --accent-3: #2c5aa0;
  --accent-4: #e0574a;
  --font-display: "Caveat", cursive;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Data Humanism: Data portraits are usually drawn from real people's lives (health, moods, relationships, locations): get consent and anonymise before publishing other people's personal data. Because the custom encodings cannot be read at a glance, give a plain-text summary and the key alongside the drawing for readers who use screen readers or are in a hurry.