Stylogeny combining Isometric Tech Illustration × Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Try

Style combination · Pairs well

Isometric Tech Illustration × Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Borrow Isotype's counted pictograms to turn a diorama into an honest explainer of quantities.

From the research on Isometric Tech Illustration

Mix them and make something Isometric Tech Illustration Isotype Pictorial Statistics

FormIsometric Tech × Isotype Pictorial2015 · 1925
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Isometric Tech Illustration, their arrangement from Isometric Tech Illustration, the finish from Isotype Pictorial Statistics. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

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.

Isometric Tech Illustration Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Type from Isometric Tech Illustration
Colour from Isotype Pictorial Statistics
Form from Isometric Tech Illustration
Composition from Isometric Tech Illustration

Isotype Pictorial Statistics avoids illusion of depth: this is where the two pull against each other.

Surface from Isotype Pictorial Statistics

02

The type

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

Display · Isometric Tech Illustration

Form

Inter Tight, standing in for Geometric and neo-grotesque web sans-serifs set flat beside the drawing, such as those of the SaaS interfaces the illustrations sit in (a working recommendation: the style has no settled typographic canon)

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

03

The colours

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

Isometric Tech Illustration Isotype Pictorial Statistics

  • #f2ecdf ground · 36%
  • #1a1a1a ink · 14%
  • #c8372d accent · 18%
  • #ffb648 accent · 14%
  • #2c5aa0 accent · 10%
  • #5b6cff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ecdf;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #c8372d;
  --accent-2: #ffb648;
  --accent-3: #2c5aa0;
  --accent-4: #5b6cff;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

An oversized, faceted yellow light bulb rises from the centre of an isometric blue platform with connected block buildings, turquoise cube-shaped trees and a small staircase. Bold blue and turquoise lettering at the upper left reads “BRIGHT IDEAS” against a pale background. 2015–present · Global / networked Isometric Tech Illustration Small diorama worlds of devices, servers, desks, factories and city blocks drawn on one isometric grid (about 30 degrees; pixel work uses a 2:1 step, about 26.6 degrees) with no vanishing point. Each volume has one flat tone for its top and two for its sides, on a white or pale ground, so it reads as three-dimensional without lighting or rendering. Used for hero images, onboarding, icons and explainers, it gave flat design back its depth while keeping its clean vector surfaces and its technological optimism. A cream-coloured infographic headed “TO SCHOOL” shows rows of red pedestrians, blue cyclists, green buses, brown cars and black scooter riders, labelled 20, 12, 8, 6 and 4. Buildings, four round green trees and a red schoolhouse form a strip along the bottom. 1925–1971 · Central Europe, Western Europe 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.

05

More combinations

With Isometric Tech Illustration

With Isotype Pictorial Statistics

All 32 combinations with Isotype Pictorial Statistics

Every style combination