Isny is a small town in the Württemberg’s Allgäu. It is framed to the west by the Adelegg (Adel Ridge) and the Schwarzen Grat (Black Ridge), to the south by the foothills of the high Alps and in the north and east by extensive moors. The former imperial town is characterized by its eventful, almost 1000-year long history, by the cultural landscape of the foothills of the Alps, by a lively urban scene and by the people who live here. Residents of the urban core, together with the four tranquil villages, number close to 14,000.
The official designation of “Heilklimatischer Kurort” (climatic health resort) contributes significantly to the success of Isny as a destination for rehabilitation and relaxation tourism. The wide range of natural attractions (accessible from hiking and cross-country trails in the area), are a magnet for day trippers and holidaymakers, both in summer and winter.
The neighbouring green meadows and forests are juxtaposed with the town and its story: the town wall and gates form a medieval oval connecting the past with the present. Battlements and prisons, patrician houses, churches and castles bear witness to the eventful past and remain a living part of cultural life. The original preacher’s library, preserved from the 15th century, is world famous. Visible from afar are the towers reaching skywards, with their ring, onion and bell shaped tops.
In the alleys, the hustle and bustle of shops, markets and restaurants meets the personality of the town. Isny’s annual calendar includes a top-class programme of events, both cosmopolitan and traditional.
As the location of numerous flourishing companies – from small businesses to global players, handicrafts to large industry – Isny stands for innovation and self-confidence.
Political culture has always been characterised by participation, and by design. Although rooted in the region, Isny has nevertheless retained a certain individualism.
In 1972 Otl Aicher moves to Rotis in the Allgäu. The nearby town of Isny quickly becomes both his motivation and partner, in his attempt to strengthen a small town’s cultural understanding through design.
The aspiration of the town’s elders to attract more tourists arouses Aicher’s interest. Without a fixed mandate and on a case-by-case basis, the town and the designers get involved in a project characterized by search and research. The designer wants to grasp the town as a whole, through its traits and in its characteristics.
To achieve this, he undertakes forays throughout the surrounding area, past forests and lakes, meadows, pastures and farms. As a designer, he sees the Allgäu landscape in its basic structures, the plants in their raw formations. He traces atmospheric qualities such as the freshness of the water and the purity of the air, the silence and the sounds, the warmth and the cold, with all his senses and throughout the course of the seasons.
In the city he finds numerous architectural elements typical of the medieval imperial towns of the region. He’s not only interested in the obvious landmarks such as the town hall and the city wall, but his gaze goes behind the facades and focuses on the subjective importance – on what the town means to its inhabitants.
The inhabitants of Isny become the subject matter. Aicher observes the people to understand the character of the town. How they live and work, what they eat and what they drink, how they make music and how they celebrate. Everything plays a meaningful part in an urban self-portrait.
In order to communicate the city in all its complexity, Aicher is breaking new ground. Using his observations of Isny, drawings and designs in black and white are created step by step and on a case-by-case basis over several years. For Aicher, the complete set of 136 icons fulfils his creative objective. With them, the town receives a reservoir of visual signs which can be used in multiple formats and products.
In 1985, the townscape was officially set “in black and white” – an exemplar of modern urban advertising that found an appreciation and resonance in exhibitions, lectures and publications, far beyond Isny.
The pictorial signs leave room for interpretation, in their application as well as in their perception. Aicher’s idea was to invite the viewer to use their imagination, to find their own point of contact, to connect their own experiences with the motifs. The visitor is invited to experience the town and landscape, craftsmanship and tradition, people and everyday life – everything that is found specifically in the Allgäu (near Isny) – sensually for himself, and perhaps in a more mindful and slower way.
50 years after their creation, the Isny icons remain part of the town’s history and are at the same time an important part of the town’s continually evolving corporate design. They are not only a visible connection between the town and the designer, but Aicher’s concept also endures in the town’s identity and the Isny Allgäu brand.
Between 1977 and 1985, Otl Aicher developed a total of 136 pictorial signs for Isny that revolved around the themes of townscape, nature, sport and everyday culture, themes Aicher found in Isny and themes belonging to the town, region and its people. Reduced exclusively to the ‘non-colours’ of black and white and to an (almost) square form, they were modern and angular and above all contrary to the conventional tourism advertising of their time.
With this graphic repertoire, Aicher created a completely new visual language. A language that, unlike what had gone before, conveyed a picture of life in the Allgäu in a more sustainable way – far from the clichéd green meadows and blue sky, and no longer bound to a constantly changing zeitgeist.
The 136 icons function as a kind of building kit. The basic elements of the characters are lines, dots, and shapes. Aicher worked with black, geometric and organic line drawings and mostly in two dimensions, and always in the same format. Despite the radical simplification, the potential for communication of ideas is open and dynamic.
Between 1977 and 1985, Otl Aicher developed a total of 136 pictorial signs for Isny that revolved around the themes of townscape, nature, sport and everyday culture, themes Aicher found in Isny and themes belonging to the town, region and its people. Reduced exclusively to the ‘non-colours’ of black and white and to an (almost) square form, they were modern and angular and above all contrary to the conventional tourism advertising of their time.
With this graphic repertoire, Aicher created a completely new visual language. A language that, unlike what had gone before, conveyed a picture of life in the Allgäu in a more sustainable way – far from the clichéd green meadows and blue sky, and no longer bound to a constantly changing zeitgeist.
The 136 icons function as a kind of building kit. The basic elements of the characters are lines, dots, and shapes. Aicher worked with black, geometric and organic line drawings and mostly in two dimensions, and always in the same format. Despite the radical simplification, the potential for communication of ideas is open and dynamic.
The pictorial signs leave room for interpretation, in their application as well as in their perception. Aicher’s idea was to invite the viewer to use their imagination, to find their own point of contact, to connect their own experiences with the motifs. The visitor is invited to experience the town and landscape, craftsmanship and tradition, people and everyday life – everything that is found specifically in the Allgäu (near Isny) – sensually for himself, and perhaps in a more mindful and slower way.
50 years after their creation, the Isny icons remain part of the town’s history and are at the same time an important part of the town’s continually evolving corporate design. They are not only a visible connection between the town and the designer, but Aicher’s concept also endures in the town’s identity and the Isny Allgäu brand.
Town / Urban Living
Towers, gates, churches, fountains, squares, patrician houses: Typical architectural objects of a medieval imperial city in the Allgäu
Trees / Forests / Hilly Landscapes
Spruces, firs, willows, fruit trees: typical forest trees, landscape shrubs, landscape structures: pre-Alpine and moraine landscapes, lakes and streams
Animals
Cow, cat, fox and poultry: common creatures; wild and domesticated
The Weather
Clouds, rain, snow –
Allgäu’s weather phenomena and the seasons
Sport
Cross-country skiing, curling, tobogganing, skiing: winter sports in the Allgäu
Cycling, running: summer sports in the Allgäu
Aichers Bildzeichen sind Teil des kulturellen Erbes der Stadt Isny, wie die historischen Bauten auch. Obwohl weder die Bildzeichen selbst, noch der Zeichenfundus verändert werden dürfen, liegt viel Potenzial und Dynamik in der Zusammenstellung. Aichers Erbe ist nicht als Dogma zu verstehen.”
Renate Breuß, 2021
In June 1959, Otl Aicher showed a selection of photographic works at the Ulm Museum under the title ‘Otl Aicher. Fotos’. They were then presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.
The connection between these photographs and the Isny pictorial signs is unmistakable: a direct comparison shows how Otl Aicher translated the natural formations of the photographs into memorable graphic signs.
Der Himmel über Isny ist nicht blau, sondern schwarz oder weiß. Aber blau ist er auch. Und grün und gelb und rot. Die zügellose Fantasie öffnet Tür und Tor. Das Sehfeld wird vergrößert und verschärft. Der Mangel macht rege.”
Büro Aicher, 1977
The concept for the appearance of Isny is consistently limited to black and white. At the time of its creation, this was a complete novelty in urban marketing.
Aicher argued that by making cost savings, there was the potential to develop a larger volume of advertising media. The reduction in costs made it possible to expand the program. This pragmatic rationale for not using colour was in line with Aicher’s goal to enable towns with minimal resources to nevertheless be capable of achieving high standards.
The complete renunciation of colour (the “radical” contrast of black and white) undoubtedly brings greater attention to the new and innovative advertising of the town. The reduction allows a great deal of scope in the viewer’s imagination and invites them to experience the place for themselves.
Isny’s creative gamble on purely black and white tourism advertising is well received by both experts and the press in the 1980s. The town’s decision is considered courageous in the eyes of the outside world, but controversial among its own citizens.
eine stadt nur in schwarz und weiß, denkt man ohne farbe? aber man wird schnell belehrt, daß intelligenz, fantasie und spiel gerade dann zur erscheinung kommen, wenn man sich in den elementen begrenzt. Es bringt nichts, das schachbrett um eine farbe zu bereichern, der spielmöglichkeiten gibt es genug. spiele setzen reduktion voraus. sie entarten sonst zum wirrwar, zum lärm, zum rauschen, zum knäuel.
(...)
unser gast ist berührt. er findet nicht mehr den uniformen schmuck der touristikindustrie vor, sondern ein lebensprinzip. leben ist, neue regeln erfinden.
und trotzdem bleibt die stadt sich selber treu. sie hat selbstbewusstsein und zugleich entfaltungskraft.”Otl Aicher, 1966
Aicher’s creative approach of taking a town’s stale identity and breathing new life into it, proved to be as sustainable as it was cutting-edge. Later steps in the development of the town’s corporate design followed this model.
Isny only set out on the path to a more general “corporate design” in the 1990s, closely watched over by Monika Schnell, who was first employed and later self-employed as a graphic designer in the Aicher office community in Rotis from 1984 to 1991. Aicher’s approach remained steadfast: the overall visual appearance had to be authentic and real; the design and its formal components had to correspond to the town’s identity.
Representatives of the ‘Ausschusses für Kultur und Fremdenverkehr’ (Committee for Culture and Tourism) researched the character of the town with qualitative surveys and investigations of the townspeople. The ‘Entwickler-Manual’ (Developer Manual), published in 1998, was a guide written by Monika Schnell for the design of a wide variety of media. It took up the Committee’s findings and successively realigned the city’s corporate design, gradually integrating Aicher’s symbols into practical use.
Not only did the image created by Aicher for Isny become a specific part of the town’s history, but it also became key to its overall image. Due to its authenticity and credibility, it went on to become a defining factor in Isny’s marketing. Aicher’s skilful recognition of the town’s identity was still valid 20 years on.
Almost 50 years later, the ongoing development of the town’s corporate design – professionally managed by Isny Marketing GmbH since 2005 – still follows the Aicher logic. The design is continually adapted, with an eye not only on the Zeitgeist, but also carefully observing developments in and around the town.
The goal today is to integrate Aicher’s icons for Isny into an innovative design approach that is modern, but remains timeless, while at the same time retaining their depth and power.
In this way, Aicher’s attitude, his design and his motifs live on in Isny – in the town’s identity, in advertising material and campaigns and in urban spaces. Isny’s promotional products aim to distinctly and genuinely reflect the town and its people, in conception, production and design.
a fox’s image on paper has no hair, only the blackness of printing ink. a fox on paper has no body. it is two-dimensional. a fox made of printed blackness has no colour; every real fox always has a coloured coat. it’s never black and white. the bushy tail on paper is not bushy. it is flat.
does that mean you shouldn’t make an illustration of a fox? should we only photograph foxes and thus make an image as it appears on our retina? communication is not exchange of illustrations, but an exchange of signs. the image of a fox in the form of a photograph is a certain fox that someone has photographed somewhere. the fox a shown here, which is located in a forest near isny or somewhere in the allgäu, it is not.
the intent here is not to depict a particular fox. in the drawing series about holidays in the allgäu, this drawing says that in the allgäu you can still see foxes, young, beautiful foxes with a delicate bushy tail. you just have to go on a different type of holiday. one in which you are prepared to see a fox. if you are looking forward to it, if a drawing has led you to want to see a real fox, you will find one.
otl aicher
A pictogram is a language-independent, graphic representation that is clearly identifiable due to a reduction to its essential elements. The Information or idea is conveyed so that is well and quickly understood across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The interpreter does not need any special knowledge or rules. The meaning can be deciphered by making simple associations.
In the repertoire of Isny signs, only the slightly revised signs taken from the ERCO collection are pictograms in the narrower sense.
attoma Berlin GmbH is responsible for the copyright of the pictograms (ERCO) developed by Otl Aicher.
Dependent on the application and combination, many of the motifs in the icon archive can be interpreted symbolically – cat and fox as slyness and cunning, tractor and pitchfork as everyday elements of peasant farming. Church towers and fountains as architectural objects of a historic old town, beer and pretzels as typical Allgäu fare, an expression of tradition and of home.
Snowflakes, raindrops and clouds signify weather phenomena, giving the observer pause to consider and awakening the senses. Wood, spruce and fir trees remind the viewer of a forest walk in the Allgäu, of shingled facades. The viewer makes subjective associations dependent on a depth of prior knowledge, on the imagination and on the lived experience. The forest hut may stand for warmth and cosiness, while the bare birch could be perceived as an early environmental criticism.
Aicher did not simply depict typical urban motifs. He captured features, peculiarities and details that are both part of a whole and evoke further associations. Each character tells of a different facet, of a different hue of Isny. Taken either individually, or as a collection, they tell of the character of the town.
The Icon as a symbol allows interpretations beyond initial information. It can be read narratively, sensually or associatively. As templates for interpretation, they are more open and ambiguous than pictograms.
With reference to the Isny icons, Aicher described them as signs and symbols with ‘Signalcharakter’. They are more ambiguous to interpret compared to pure pictograms. Further to a reading based solely on visual similarity, there are also overlying symbolic meanings and narrative readings.
Aicher did not simply depict typical urban motifs. He captured features, peculiarities and details that are both part of a whole and evoke further associations. Each character tells of a different facet, of a different hue of Isny. Taken either individually, or as a collection, they tell of the character of the town.
The Icon as a symbol allows interpretations beyond initial information. It can be read narratively, sensually or associatively. As templates for interpretation, they are more open and ambiguous than pictograms.
With reference to the Isny icons, Aicher described them as signs and symbols with ‘Signalcharakter’. They are more ambiguous to interpret compared to pure pictograms. Further to a reading based solely on visual similarity, there are also overlying symbolic meanings and narrative readings.
Dependent on the application and combination, many of the motifs in the icon archive can be interpreted symbolically – cat and fox as slyness and cunning, tractor and pitchfork as everyday elements of peasant farming. Church towers and fountains as architectural objects of a historic old town, beer and pretzels as typical Allgäu fare, an expression of tradition and of home.
Snowflakes, raindrops and clouds signify weather phenomena, giving the observer pause to consider and awakening the senses. Wood, spruce and fir trees remind the viewer of a forest walk in the Allgäu, of shingled facades. The viewer makes subjective associations dependent on a depth of prior knowledge, on the imagination and on the lived experience. The forest hut may stand for warmth and cosiness, while the bare birch could be perceived as an early environmental criticism.
Monika Schnell ist Grafikerin – von Beruf und mit Leidenschaft. Neben ihrer Selbständigkeit als Gestalterin und ihren Lehrtätigkeiten an diversen Kunsthochschulen, begleitet sie seit den 1990er Jahren die Entwicklung und Umsetzung des Corporate Designs der Stadt Isny im Allgäu. Seit 2005 unterstützt sie die Isny Marketing GmbH (IMG) bei der Erarbeitung, Weiterentwicklung und Anwendung eines umfassenden Design-Manuals und ist unabdingbar in Gestaltungsfragen – für Kampagnen und Werbemittel. Sie war maßgeblich bei der Entwicklung der Isny Produkte und an der Konzeption des Isny Shops im Hallgebäude beteiligt.
Mit Otl Aicher arbeitete sie viele Jahre zusammen. Wie diese Erfahrung und ihr eigener Blick auf Aicher und Isny die Weiterentwicklung des Corporate Designs der Stadt geprägt haben, erzählt sie im Gespräch.