Herbert Bayer's World Geo-Graphic Atlas and Information Design at Mid-Century

Herbert Bayer's World Geo-Graphic Atlas and Information Design at Midcentury, will be the first monographic study devoted to Herbert Bayer's 1953 landmark work of visual education, the World Geo-Graphic Atlas: A Composite of Man's Environment. The innovative methods for visualizing information that the former Bauhaus designer helped to popularize through this elaborately illustrated work shaped the look and character of subsequent geographical atlases and popular scientific illustrations. Yet, outside of the brief discussions that figure in graphic design history survey texts, historians have devoted little attention to Bayer's monumental and influential publication. In his account of the World Geo-Graphic Atlas's design and production, Benjamin Benus assesses Herbert Bayer's contributions to the emerging field of information design, while illuminating broader historical relationships between modern art and scientific illustration. Richly illustrated and drawing on extensive archival documentation, Herbert Bayer, the World Geo-Graphic Atlas, and Information Design at Midcentury, tells the story of the Atlas's creation and reception over the course of four chapters, each devoted to different aspects of the work's design and context. Beginning with a general overview of Bayer's career leading up to his work on the Atlas, Part 1 considers how Bayer's early experiences at the Bauhaus and his longstanding artistic engagements with geographic themes equipped him to undertake this project and provided him tools that found application in the Atlas's design. Part 2, containing an account of the Atlas's technical production and an analysis of its distinctive forms and style, situates the work in relation to a variety of print traditions, including atlas and book design. In Part 3, focus shifts to Bayer's adaptations and translations of the Atlas's source materials. By examining the work in relation to its models and precedents, the sections in this part clarify the nature of Bayer's contributions, while highlighting the efforts of his many collaborators, contributors, and precursors, who helped to shape the Atlas's contents and design methods. Part 4 interprets the Atlas's significance in light of the stated aims and interests of its patron, the Chicago-based packaging manufacturer Container Corporation of America. Benus concludes by assessing writers' claims, both for the Atlas's landmark status and for its continued relevance as a model for designers and educators. In exploring the important role that modernist map design played in shaping twentieth-century audiences' cartographic literacy and geographic consciousness, Benus's study will have appeal for scholars and practitioners in a wide range of fields, including art historians, map historians, graphic designers, artists, and educators.