a design pioneer

First edition, first impression of this children's book by graphic design pioneer Marie Neurath (1898-1986). Scarce in the dust jacket. Published six years before the launch of Sputnik, and more than a decade before Kennedy announced the Apollo program, this volume concludes with information about theoretical rockets for a moon landing.

Neurath, along with her husband Otto and their colleague Gerd Arntz, was one of the founders of Isotype, a simplified visual method for conveying complex information. First developed in the 1920s, Isotype 'helped establish some of the core principles of graphic design' and its legacy 'can be seen everywhere from newspapers and textbooks to signage, transit maps, interfaces, and emojis' (Inglis, 'Meet Marie Neurath', AIGA Eye on Design, September 17, 2019).

Neurath was 'a remarkable practitioner' who 'researched, calculated, and co-designed nearly every Isotype ever created, from the early days in Vienna in 1925 all the way to when she retired in 1971' (Forrest, 'The Missing Legacy of Marie Neurath', Medium, January 20, 2020). Marie continued the work of Isotype after Otto's death in 1945 and became known for the series of children's books she published over the next twenty years, 'an ideal place to put Isotype's methods into practice' (Inglis).

First edition, first impression; 4to; colour illustrations throughout, contents clean; original yellow cloth, titles to spine and jet design to upper board in red, cloth a little rubbed and dulled at the extremities with a few faint marks, a very good copy in the rubbed jacket with some small chips and short closed tears; 36pp.