Portrait of Otl Aicher

Birthday profile

Otl Aicher

Otl Aicher, German graphic designer and typographer (died 1991)

Born
May 13, 1922
Died
September 1, 1991
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1922

About Otl Aicher

Otto "Otl" Aicher was a German graphic designer and typographer. Aicher co-founded and taught at the influential Ulm School of Design. He is known for having led the design team of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, and for overseeing the creation of its prominently used system of pictograms. Aicher also developed the Rotis typeface. He created pictograms using a series of grid systems and a specific bright colour palette that he chose for these Games. The series of pictograms he created was not a simple task; the goal of each pictogram was to function as a clear sign of the activity it represented while simultaneously maintaining its universal comprehension.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Otl Aicher was born

Otl Aicher was born in 1922. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1922

  • #1 song"Chicago" – Fred Fisher
  • Top movieNosferatu
  • Best-selling bookUlysses – James Joyce

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGene Sarazen wins the U.S. Open at age 20
  • Top headlineMussolini marches on Rome and seizes power in Italy
  • Technology milestoneBBC begins radio broadcasts
  • Defining fadCrossword puzzles
  • Notable inventionWater skiing invented in Minnesota
  • World population1.90 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population110.0M

1922 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Otl Aicher's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19222026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,270$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population110.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.