Designing for BLIND PEOPLE?

Peter_su88

Peter_su88

Member
soo from the title...

the main definition for graphic design normally refers to Visual Communication, but when it comes to designing for blind people?.. does it still classify as as a form of visual communication?

- Are there any good examples out there?
- Has anyone designed for blind people?
- Are we ignoring these people?

- What are your thoughts on this?
 
Peter_su88 said:
soo from the title...

the main definition for graphic design normally refers to Visual Communication, but when it comes to designing for blind people?.. does it still classify as as a form of visual communication?

- Are there any good examples out there?
- Has anyone designed for blind people?
- Are we ignoring these people?

- What are your thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

Design incorporates many fields including Graphic Design and as you pointed out the very nature of Graphic Design is visual so I find it difficult to think how one would produce Graphic Design for the blind.

I guess the question is more about how flexible Braille is. I know nothing about Braille but I guess that it is set as it is, in a way like morse-code so you wouldn't have the ability to change the structure of it like you do when deciding on a font...

The Rubic's cube is a good design for the blind but there are no graphic elements as such and I think that each square's braille just states what colour that box is.
 
the printers i'm using is coming up with different kind of textures of paper etc. their logo is a butterfly and they are doing some butterfly type things and looking for the right feel.

i'm not sure he's aimed it at blind people but their could be a marker for brail book covers or something
 
I think that you can design for the blind.

If you take the brail route and look at books there are many ways in which I can see design as important.

Now I can't read brail and haven't studied a brail book, so I don't know about the page formatting of brail.
For example whether there are columns etc or whether the brail just reads left to right in many uniform lines.

I'm guessing there must be some formatting to break up the page. To separate articles from one another and to make it easier to resume reading, like with visual reading.

I'm very enthusiastic about books and what I love about designing for them other than the visual presentation is the tactile response that people get from them.
Books are extremely tactile and this is something that can be designed very well or poorly depending on a combination of elements.
An example would be the type of paper used. What is the weight of the paper, is it glossy or matte? Are there holes or embossing? Is it paper or plastic or something else? What does it smell like? These are just some thoughts.

I think it would be an interesting experience to design a book for the blind and this has made me wonder whether books for the blind are even given anything but basic design thought. Are they just a single boring format which is functional but offers nothing more to the reader?

If so, is that good enough?
 
I found some buttons today in a book that are designed to help blind people colour cordinate their clothing.

The buttons are different shapes depending on their colour. For example, a brown button, for a brown coat may be a star shape. If a blind person decides to wear brown that day, they simply have to match the shapes of the buttons on their clothing.

I thought it was an extremely clever idea.
 
There's not much out there but enough if you know where to look..
I recently did a Uni project involving visual comms for the blind so I'll dig out my sketchbook - hopefully I noted where the info and samples came from.


Swell paper is an amazing thing but expensive.
Braille (the obvious) but there's also a lot of scope for embossing.

I found in my research that the hardest thing was to find an item that was equally as informative for the visual as well as blind people.
In the end - I designed a music event poster (typically aimed at visual people).
I used no ink, and the entire thing was embossed using aluminium I'd hand pierced. The idea was to lower the visuals visual people would experience and allow all information to be readable by the blind. The poster worked for visual people too because the embossed shadows created the information too.

More of a compromise between the two groups but it worked. From memory, I obtained a huge amount of help, samples and information from the RNIB.org (you can email for free samples)
And also a website Moon Literacy
that uses an alternative to braille.

I found that emailing some design agencies was a good way to go as they often have to design for blind, and would therefore be well positioned to advise you on cost effectiveness, runs and whether your idea is practical or doable.
 
blind people may not be able to see themselves but they can be aware of fashion, by touch and hearing gossip and such, especially if they were born with sight and lost it, then they know what they can see in their mind when people talk about fashion, looking good to others may be important to them, even if they cannot see it themselves

i dont really have any examples but it's best to look for celebrities, stevie wonder is blind.. :O /was blind.
 
thank you everyone for the feedback.

It was just something that has always been on the back of my mind and bugged me.

thank you for your thoughts.
 
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