You want something when you’re in a foreign country: Eventually this is true. You want to go somewhere, you want to find someone, you want to purchase something. Hell, maybe you just want to use a toilet, even if it might be a toilet unlike any other you’ve seen in your life thus far. But, ah, damn, you can’t make yourself understood. You don’t speak the local language; the locals don’t speak your language. What’s a monoglot to do?
ICOON, which sounds like some provocative cyber-project from William Pope L., is a perfectbound booklet packed with precise line illustrations and full-color photos of people and things and situations. The idea is, you carry this mini-tome (written and gorgeously designed by Gosia Warrink) with you on your travels, and when language is a barrier, you simply locate an illo of what you’re trying to communicate and then point it out to the person you’re trying to talk to.
Brilliant? We think it might be called that, sure, especially as its precise and pleasing images are arranged in handy categories like “clothing,” “hygiene,” “health,” “money,” “food,” “emotions,” and so on. And, even if you’re not planning on traveling beyond the borders of your own lingo’s comfort zone anytime soon? It’s quite a sweet little volume to peruse and share with others, and at $10 would make an excellent stocking stuffer for that holiday [points to image of Santa Claus] coming up.
This article appears in October 24 • 2008.