Otl Aicher

“if i am addressed as the ‘father of the geometric man’, then that’s due to having rigidly geometrised our images of people. that would seem to limit one’s scope for portrayal but in fact does not. despite the undeniable difficulty involved in rendering sporting disciplines by forms of movement, we invariably managed by adopting additional formal restrictions to create symbols that are readily comprehensible without the need for any major learning process, even for idiosyncratic sports.

in tandem with the olympic games, we also worked on the information system for frankfurt airport, where we were tasked with producing an exhaustive repertoire of symbols for air travel and tourism to similar criteria. it was this double assignment that enabled us to come up with a comprehensive system of symbols now in use all over the world.”

Otl Aicher