Otto Neurath developed pictorial statistics and the use of simplified pictures to communicate information visually in the early 20th century. In the 1970s, Otl Aicher applied this approach to the 1972 Munich Olympics by creating a visual language of pictograms to communicate across 34 languages spoken in Europe. Technical bulletins, brochures, charts and posters were produced for the 1972 Olympics using this visual language of pictograms to provide information to athletes, journalists, staff and spectators in a universally understandable way without language barriers.