World Savings Day

The current upheaval in financial markets might just give the old "World Savings Day" a new lease of life.
Celeberated since 1924, when representatives from 29 countries decided on the 1st International Savings Bank Congress to make 31 October a day dedicated to the concept of saving, it had gathered a thick coat of dust in recent years, not really suitable to an online banking and share buying public.
Having said that, I have fond memories of taking my piggy bank to the local branch as a child. In return I got to choose a little present – early conditioning to a life of shopping: hand over the cash and you get something for it you never knew you wanted.
The symbol for saving in my childhood years was the "Sparefroh", which loosely translates to "Happy Saver". Originally a German idea, this really took off in Austria and remained a firm fixture for about half a century, from 1955 to the 1990s.

Today I thought I'd check what's on offer in 2008, and nothing much has changed. A fluffy toy, a pencil case, something inflatable, and, for the more practically inclined, a storage box for the refrigerator.
This year I expected something different.
When banks are taking billions in support from governments, much more effort must go into explaining why anyone should entrust their savings to them, why the same people who carry their savings to the bank also pay for propping them up from the other side. I grant it's a communication challenge, but one that has to be faced to re-establish trust and confidence.

Fluffy toys and plastic boxes? Sorry, not even close.

Finding Otto Neurath in Istanbul 2007

As an Information Designer I have "grown up" with the pictograms of ISOTYPE and the wonderful, storytelling diagrams of Otto Neurath. (An Austrian national economist born in 1882 who was founder of the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics, conveying complicated social and economic facts with simple visual symbols. The intention was to help the public understand social change.)

Imagine my surprise when I read the following (excerpts from the Istanbul Declaration 2007, Second OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy):
(...) The availability of statistical indicators of economic, social, and environmental outcomes and their dissemination to citizens can contribute to promoting good governance and the improvement of democratic processes. It can strengthen citizens’ capacity to influence the goals of the societies they live in through debate and consensus building, and increase the accountability of public policies. (...)
To take this work forward we need to: (...) produce a broader, shared, public understanding of changing conditions, while highlighting areas of significant change or inadequate knowledge;

Now compare it to this quote by Otto Neurath from 1926:
“Modern democracy requires the general population to be educated about the facts of production, emigration, child mortality, trade, unemployment, the fight against tuberculosis and alcoholism, nutrition, the importance of sports, physical and emotional nurturing, forms of education, social housing, location of industries.”

This was no coincidence, it was fate, connecting the strong social agenda of Information Design to the statistics community. Why had we not thought of this before? It it because we tend to focus too narrowly on the visual aspects of ISOTYPE?

The aims of the International Institute for Information Design (IIID):

• contribute to a better understanding with respect to cultural and economic issues by means of improved visual communication.
• give special attention to the potential of information design to overcome both social and language barriers.

Suddenly, one cold night in December 2007 it all fell into place. The result of my epiphany: DD4D

Watch this space.