Leprosy poster-leaflet

"As director of the Isotype Institute, Neurath visited hospitals, clinics, medical field units and a leprosy center in the Western Region. Recognizing a need for basic information among the population, she drew on the experience and knowledge of local health workers and the support of the minister of health to devise poster-leaflets explaining health concerns, including leprosy. As designed, the poster-leaflet for leprosy unfolded—figuratively and literally—the disease and its treatment. Using unambiguous language and simple graphic arrangements, the aim was to inform and enable action. The poster-leaflet could be taken away and kept, or passed on to others. Did it work? We don’t actually know. Fifty thousand were printed, some in English, some in Yoruba, and shipped to the Western Region. But, try as she might, Neurath could not discover from officials whether it functioned as intended, had any effect on leprosy diagnosis and treatment, or mitigated people’s fear. Yet the example is a valuable one, providing evidence of graphic design deployed to improve the lives of those with a disease whose stigma added to its debilitating effects."— Eric Kindel, head of the department of typography & graphic communication at the University of Reading and curator of the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection