Within a pictogram system, the pictograms depicting humans tend to be all alike. The people are usually implicitly male, white, young or middle-aged, and able-bodied—with a few exceptions such as the symbols for the ladies’ bathroom, or disabled parking.

We wanted to challenge this assumption in the pictogram system we designed for Kuntaliitto, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. Here, the pictograms depicting humans are constructed from modular components which makes it easy to vary their implied gender, age, and ethnicity. The aim is to have the pictogram people better reflect the diversity of our society.