Despite the comprehensive texts attached to the surveys of national attitudes to various FORTUNE issues, pictograms, often by Irving Geis, were used to great effect in communicating complex issues to the public. Geis (1907-1997) is better known now for his visualisations of scientific propositions. There is an excellent pdf obituary in PROTEIN SCIENCE by Richard E.Dickerson available here .

Geis was trained as an architect, then as as a Fine Artist, becoming a freelance illustrator (Scientific American, TIME and Fortune in particular) in the period of the late thirties/early forties in New York. During the Second World War he was art director and chief of the Graphics section of the OSS

His FORTUNE SURVEY pictograms are most inventive, making visual equivalents for all manner of opinions and intentions among the Voting Public, as distilled by the great pioneer of Sophology, Elmo Roper. Geis' archive has been acquired by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

to more examples of Geis' work

I have included above other comparative examples for study.