Bob Noorda & Vignelli's signage for New York Transit (1960s)

Though they have been modified over the years, the signs New York subway riders see today are essentially the work of Mr. Noorda and Mr. Vignelli, from the bold, clean type to the color coding used to identify the system’s many train lines.

What do we see?  

1- identifiable codes,
2- few words,
3- friendly, consistent colors,
4- functionality,
5- familiarity

Lester Beall (1950s)

geometric, simple, direct, photo, primary colors.

even in the 1950s Beall didn't change much.

graphic designers took on the "intangible" and lent it visual form

Will Burtin, cooper corporation, 1950s

Here technology and human figures are compared. Bodies compared with machines, brains with computers. Technological intervention at a microscope placed test-tube babies and miracle cures in the same world as polymers. All had properties unheard of before synthetic processing. Visualizing scientific processes was critical in the context of research where the ability to conceptualize a problem was often directly related to the model according to which it could be represented. Burtin's capacity to design scientific findings for broad public consumption accounted for the wide circulation of his imagery.