Culture
The Simple Icons of Major Social Change
The new book Today Meets Yesterday uses graphic design to tease out how technology has changed culture.
Seismic shifts aren’t likely to be tidy. But in the new book, Today Meets Yesterday, the Berlin-based illustrator Yang Liu makes quick work of mapping major changes in habits, routines, and landscapes.
The book doesn’t operate from a particular time or place; there’s no concrete “today” or “yesterday” on its pages. But Liu’s pictogram pairings assume a static past and a markedly different present, egged on by a smattering of smart tech: wi-fi, cell phones, iPads.