World geo-graphic atlas
July 2023
Benjamin Benus, contributing author to Isotype: design and contexts, 1925-1971, has completed a new book, Herbert Bayer's World geo-graphic atlas and information design at mid-century (RIT Press, 2023).
Benus's book represents the first in-depth, multi-dimensional study of Bayer's well-known atlas, privately published by Container Corporation of America in 1953. The study is built around Benus's exploration of the graphic design - cartography nexus that defines the atlas, which is expertly assessed within and against histories of modernism, cartography, corporate strategy, environmentalism, and much else, as tracked across the first half of the twentieth century. A notable feature of Benus's study is a detailed discussion of Isotype's influence on the design of the atlas.
Following the publication of Herbert Bayer's World geo-graphic atlas and information design at mid-century, we are making available Eric Kindel's previously unpublished text, 'Isotype and Herbert Bayer's World geo-graphic atlas' (2017), cited by Benus.
