picture dictionary & Android app
ICOON for refugees is a picture dictionary including an Android app for refugees and their helpers. 1,200 symbols, pictograms and photos enable quick and easy communication and are geared specifically to the needs of refugees. No matter whether you want to describe clothes, food or illnesses: simply point at the symbol to make yourself understood. ICOON speaks the world’s most comprehensible language: pictures.
The book is divided into 12 categories from all life situations. The design is clear and cross-cultural. There are additional phrases in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Ukrainian, Polish, as well as German, English and French, with which the individual pictures can be combined. The new symbols were one of the biggest design challenges. They had to be designed specifically for medical issues such as scabies, polio and tuberculosis. 180 new symbols were developed for phenomena including trauma, rape, democracy and equality.
Background to the project
AMBERPRESS has been publishing the picture dictionary ICOON since 2007. At the height of the influx of refugees in summer 2015, aid organisations asked us for a quick, simple and universal tool for communication. So our small team – Katja Koeberlin, Monika Pfau and Gosia Warrink – developed our non-profit aid project ICOON for refugees to express their most urgent needs and build communication bridges. At the beginning of 2022, we printed a 4th edition (50,000 books) for refugees from Ukraine.
Since December 2015, over 120,000 books have been printed and distributed throughout Europe. The app has been downloaded 10,000+ times. Free additional flyers and posters on a CC BY-ND basis reached at least 60,000 adults and children. Many refugees and refugee workers were thus helped. Our project was awarded the German Design Award 2018 in two categories: Excellent Communications Design – Editorial Design and Universal Design.