Abstract/Summary

This chapter is about the role that information design, and typography and graphic communication play in effective public health communication. It introduces the way that information designers work, particularly in relation to what have been called ‘functional texts’ – those that enable people to take some kind of action, or to better understand something. Examples of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century printed ephemera are used to draw attention to the ways that language and visual presentation work together to enhance the meaning of a particular message. The role of pictures in health communication is discussed with reference to Isotype and the work of Otto and Marie Neurath.