Otl Aicher

Otl Aicher was a German graphic designer best known for his pictograms created for the 1972 Munich summer olympics (shown below).

The Munich pictograms are created using 45 and 90 degree angles only, each depicting a sport, with silhouettes in poses affiliated with the sport. The icons are standardised due to these angles and consistent stroke thickness through the head, body and limbs of each icon. 

Aicher designed these using a grid system and the uniformity of the icons coupled with the clarity of the design lead to the icons becoming a milestone in icon design. The icons were reused for the 1976 summer olympics in Montreal, Canada - proving and reinforcing their success.

What is interesting is that Otl based these icons on the ones from the 64 Olympic games in Japan, designed by Yoshiro Yamashita and Masaru Katzumie. These icons (below) do not conform to this grid system and include curved lines and varying stroke thickness. Otl has moved on from this approach and while using the basis of silhouettes in sport poses he has brought a sense of uniformity to the icons.

I really like Otl's approach to iconography. The consistency and ease of understanding of the icons is something I would love to carry across to my own signs/icons and I think I would be able to do this by using a grid system, similarly to Aicher.