Studio Brief 02 - Typeface Design (Numerous) critique / development work

After presenting my typeface work with my critique group, a lot of my peers really liked the braille idea. That it has 'Numerous' ways of being read visually and physically for the blind. A lot of them agreed that I should research more into braille for this idea to expand, plus it could become my Manifesto. Some other peers suggested that I should try and work with combining two typefaces together as it has numerous amount of styles. My manifesto is inspired by the typeface Univers and Braille influence. The aims/purpose of this is to both be legible to read visually and physically for the blind. It can be made in many ways for people who have or no disabilities, giving it ‘numerous’ aspect.

So after this critique, I began researching and creating more designs for my typeface. Here are some images below of my design process. In these five pages, I drew out the Univers alphabet and added some circles to it to give it the effect.

Here are some images at the bottom which shows the digital forms of the graph paper sketches. I have done these on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Braille Research

Braille is a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. Teachers, parents, and others who are not visually impaired ordinarily read braille with their eyes. Braille is not a language. Rather, it is a code by which many language such as: English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and dozens of others. May be written and read. Braille is used by thousands of people all over the world in their native languages, and provides a means of literacy for all.

The specific code used in the United States has been English Braille, American Edition but in 2016 the main code for reading material will be Unified English Braille, a code used in seven other English-speaking countries.

Braille symbols are formed within units of space known as braille cells. A full braille cell consists of six raised dots arranged in two parallel rows each having three dots. The dot positions are identified by numbers from one through six. Sixty-four combinations are possible using one or more of these six dots. A single cell can be used to represent an alphabet letter, number, punctuation mark, or even a whole word. This braille alphabet and numbers page illustrates what a cell looks like and how each dot is numbered.

The creator of Braille was Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France, on January 4, 1809. He attended the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, France, as a student.