Rudolf Modley was an Austrian-American research executive, graphic designer, management consultant and author, who founded Pictorial Statistics Inc. in 1934. He illustrated and wrote a series of books on pictorial statistics and pictorial symbolism. Modley is known for introducing and populizing the Isotype picture language in the United States, whereby he developed an own version of pictorial statistics. He also designed many pictorial symbols in the 1930s and 1940s, and worked on standardization of pictorial symbols.
Biography
Youth and studies
Modley was born in Vienna, Austria in 1906 to Alfred and Elsa Moddley. After regular education and high school, he studied at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his Doctor of Law degree in 1929. During his studies in Vienna Modley had been assistant to Otto Neurath in the Social Museum, which Neurath had founded in 1923 and directed ever since. Modley had got acquainted with Otto Neurath’s isotype, while still at high school, and since those days he had worked as volunteer for Neurath. In 1928 he got a part-time appointed as staff member and instructor for foreign visitors at the museum.
Early career in the U.S.
In 1930 Modley came to the United States to do postgraduate work at the University of Chicago. Recommended by Neurath he got appointed curator of Social Science at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago by Waldemar Kaempffert, a cousin of Neurath. By the end of 1931 Modley had to go back to Austria to obtain a permanent resident status, and returned in 1932. In 1933 Modley had moved to New York, where he in 1934 he founded Pictorial Statistics Incorporated. The company promoted the production and distribution of ISOTYPE-like pictographs for education, news, and other forms of communications. The company was set up as "a non-profit organization that offered to draw charts, including Isotypes, for any editor or publisher interested in illustrating economic and social articles." Pictorial Statistics Inc. followed an independent course from Otto Neurath, who had set up an own institute, the Institute for Visual Education, to promote his ideas in the U.S. Modley also started working as consultant for several government agencies.
Later career in the U.S.
In the mid-1960s, Modley joined forces with cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, jointly establishing an organization called Glyphs Inc., whose goal was to create a universal graphic symbol language to be understood by any members of culture, no matter how primitive. In his later years Modley was management consultant for several trade association. Modley died in the Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago in 1976.
Reception
In the late 1930s the work of Otto Neurath and his method of picture statistics, the "Vienna method," had come into prominence, and with it Modley was a rising star. In his famous 1937 thesis Howard G. Funkhouser had stipulated Otto Neurath and the Vienna Method, as follows: Although Funkhouser didn't call Modley by name, he did refer to his company Pictorial Statistics, Inc. with the text: A 1938 article in The New Yorker, entitled "Modley's Little Men," brought forward the role of Modley, and described their key-message: The article concluded that this was "discouraging, but probably true."
Selected publications
Rudolf Modley, How to use pictorial statistics, New York and London, Harper and brothers, 1937.
Louis M. Hacker, Rudolf Modley and George Rogers Taylor. ,New York, Modern Age Books, Inc, 1938.
Luther Gulick and Rudolf Modley. , The Regents' inquiry, 1939.
Thomas R. Carskadon and Rudolf Modley, U.S.A., measure of a nation; a graphic presentation of America's needs and resources. New York, Macmillan Co., 1949.
Rudolf Modley and William R. Myers. Handbook of pictorial symbols: 3,250 examples from international sources.Courier Corporation, 1976.
