Hannah Pivo

2023 Detroit, MI, United States

Abstract: During the first half of the 20th century, U.S. businesses were among the many public and private entities that made increasing use of graphic methods for visualizing quantitative information. This paper examines this history, emphasizing relations between the specialized discourse on statistical business graphics (which unfolded chiefly in instructional manuals) and the professional practice of graphic design. It addresses how businesses turned to the realms of science and especially social science as a means of granting legitimacy and authority to their endeavors, often relying on visualization techniques borrowed from or informed by the social sciences to communicate these connections. The paper traces these efforts in the realm of marketing and sales, in particular. It studies visual depictions of practices of so-called “scientific” advertising that emerged in the early decades of the 20th century, as well as visualizations of market research as this technique became common to business around midcentury. In both cases, businesses enlisted graphic designers to produce books, pamphlets, and other promotional items that explained these efforts to advertisers, salespersons, and occasionally consumers. I focus on the presence of statistical graphics in these materials, unpacking how line graphs, bar charts, and other formats were designed to convey quantitative information at the same time that operated symbolically and rhetorically to express additional meaning— an aspect of these images that was heightened by graphic designers’ creative departures from convention.