Monday, May 9, 2011

Change people / UK

http://changepeople.co.uk
Change people: People with learning difficulties working for equal rights.
Well worth a look, award winning organisation. They employ one full time illustrator (and three part time illustrators) to create imagery on different themes which is sold online to generate income for the organisation. Images (B & W line drawings) are saved and sold as pdfs. Some of you might like to make contact with the organisation to find about more about it.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Changing around th background colours.

I found this set of pictures among lots of pictograms, and felt they really stood out. I think changing around the colours is really striking. Maybe using black as the back ground seems more easier to understand and follow.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Library literacy services

Dewey Pictograms

Dewey PictogramsReproducible images portraying collections within the Dewey Decimal Classification System, enabling people with disabilities, low literacy skills, etc., to better locate materials in the library's collection; these can be mounted on bookstacks or special mounts in the collection.

Many thanks to OCLC (all copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification System are owned by OCLC; Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC) and to Oakland (CA) Public Library for making these images freely available. The resource is a result of a collaboration between the Oakland Public Library and the East Bay Learning Disabilities Association (EastBayl da.org), supported by the California State Library.

The 88 images were created by Shelby Designs & Illustrates (Oakland, CA) and the work was supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.....

http://libraryliteracy.org/staff/differences/dewey.html

The Newsletter of Western Center for Microcomputers in Special Education

DISKoveries: New from Boardmaker
by Joan Tanenhaus

Create


Arts Council Artist in Community Scheme Project Realisation Award
training to be a service user
Artist-in-residence Colette Lewis
RehabCare Hollyhill Cork
2004

colette lewiscolette lewis

colette lewis colette lewis


project description
In July 2001 the management of a number of Sheltered Workshops for people with disabilities in the Rehab Group transferred from National Learning Network (formerly NTDI) to RehabCare, which is the health and social care division of Rehab. These sheltered workshops were originally set up in the 70’s as a facility for people with long term disabilities considered unable for open employment. At the initial stage of this ‘changeover’ there was a lot of concern from people in these workshops as to what this change in management would bring. The primary change has been the closure of many of the sheltered workshops being replaced by programmes with a rehabilitative, developmental and therapeutic focus. For some this created a sense of ‘work’ displacement and for others an opportunity for self-development.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Harry Pearce (Pentagram)- Launchpad Signage


Just something that caught my eye from the excellent Harry Pearce of Pentagram. The link below is worth a look too.

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2008/09/new-work-launchpad.php

Michael Bierut (Pentagram)-Library Initiative



Heres a good link to the Library Initiative art directed by Michael Bierut of Pentagram for the Robin Hood Foundation.

http://www.pentagram.com/en/new/2009/03/murals-for-the-library-initiat.php

Athens 2004





The Athens 2004 Sport pictograms were inspired by three elements of ancient Greek civilization. The simplicity of the human form is inspired by the Cycladic figurines. The artistic expression of the pictogram derives from the black-figure vases, where solid black shapes represent the human body and a single line defines the detailing of the form. One of the few pictogram solutions which finds a balance between artistic expression and clear communication

Moscow 1980


Interestingly the Moscow 1980 pictograms were ,by request of the Olympic Games Committee, were undertaken by students of several art colleges as part of their dissertations. The winning designs, by Nikolai Belkow, are smoother in outline appearance then the Otl Aicher 1972 pictograms (and reused in 1976) as they are constructed at angles of 30 ad 60 degrees.

Roger Excoffon Grenoble '68 Pictogram


OpArt inspired pictograms of the 1968 winter olympics using scan lines to create movement. The movement created is indicative of the respective discipline eg. the slalom twists

Thursday, March 3, 2011

A SIGN SYSTEMS MANUAL Theo Crosby, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes






Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes -the British company that would later form the nucleus of design group pentagram, decided to produce
a book A SIGN SYSTEMS MANUAL"This book illustrates and describes a simple basic system for designing, constructing and displaying signs, together with examples of schemes which havbe been produced by leading international designers. The first part of the manual is a brief survey of the history of alphabets, the development of letters and type. This background is essential in order to understand the reasons, evolutionary and functional, behind the peculiarites and characteristics of lettering and typefaces."

Contents:

Terminology
Letter Styles
Letterforms
Letter Proportions
Display and Sign Letters
Airport Letters
Airport Alphabet
Unit Measurement System
Letter, Word and Line Spacing
Margin Spacing
Panel Sizes
Letter Sizes
Message Sizes
The Arrow
Typographic Layout
Panel Layout
Panel Contributions
Symbols
Sign Classification
Colour Coding (this is the only color in the book)
Sign Location and Fixings
Unit Spacing Chart
Specifications, Reproduction and Material
Sign Schedules
Type Style Rules
Sign Programmes

Posters from the 1972 Olympics

Came across this Visual Timetable in this series of posters designed by Otl Aicher for the Munich Olympics. See more here.



Sassoon

I've been researching the typeface Sassoon that I was talking about on Tuesday. Not much info available but from what I could find, it was originally designed as a more legible font for infants, learning to read. The Family was then expanded to include Sassoon Sans, Sassoon Book, etc. and the typeface’s creator, Rosemary Sasson, considers it a legible, unintimidating font for adults also. Got this screen grab from Fontshop:



























Not shown in its best light there but I have seen it used to good effect. Check out this signage for the children's area in the basement of the Science Museum, Designed by Norman Hathaway—who said the following about Rosemary Sassoon:

“Rosemary Sassoon is the only person I know of who has done extensive readabilty testing with children. Her resulting typeface features details that help dyslexic kids differentiate between characters. Aside from all that, I think it’s an attractive face. I like that Sassoon doesn’t consider herself a designer, but a researcher. Perhaps that mindset made for the innovative end result.”

Read more here.
















Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Tactile Learning

I was just reading this page, and apparently children with down syndrome are primarily tactile learners.
http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/93950.aspx

Heller on Olympic Pictograms

Design critic Steven Heller briefly details the history of the Olympic Pictogram, the standouts and the not so successful attempts. This was also shown at Offset '10, during Lance Wyman's Q&A. Just happened to be sitting right next to Heller as it was being shown, which was bizzare.

Link to AIGA standard signs

Heres a link to the eps/gif templates for standard signs provided by AIGA that we came across in digital media and that Brian Nolan mentioned on Tuesday

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/symbol-signs

Some more photos from St. Michaeals House





Some different photos from St. Michaels House... next visit the photographic research could be more expansive then this. More documentation of the building as a whole is needed I think.

Monday, February 28, 2011

ASOTYPE,Animated System Of Typographic Picture Education








Communication via signage is based on function and purpose. The traffic signal is a good example of how a single color communicates without further explanation. When people cross a street they press the button on the traffic signal column. Then, the signal turns red to green in the crosswalk as the signal for the drivers turn green to red. In this case the human shape in the crosswalk signal is quite unnecessary because the effect is not the form but the color. A way to improve the efficiency of the form, the green light should show a human shape actually walking and the red light should show the shape stopping. In addition, since the signal lights on streets already implement a form of animation, blinking, adding simple motion to the existing system is not far from present practice.

St. Michael House signs







Inaccessible Design?

Just a thought—Accessible design, or design that adheres to accessibility standards and guidelines can often have a kind of clinical feeling, lacking any kind of texture. However, as we’ve learned from our visits to St Michael’s—it is often tactile sensation that has the biggest impact on some of the service users. Could the use of texture, or even the appearance of texture, create a more accessible kind of design in this case?

Paula Scher- some inspiration


'Design for All': Socially Responsible Design or just good sense?

A fragment from a book 'Design for All': Socially Responsible Design or just good sense?

Perhaps by far the most cogent of all these factors is the voice of the users themselves. For many disabled or socially excluded people, technological advances have given them the means to communicate with the world. The Internet and the support it offers for activities such as shopping, banking, voting, entertainment, and education, not to mention the lifelines provided by various online communities, have opened up opportunities that were not possible for these users before. With these communication channels they are also able to make their voices heard, and their need for accessible content, input and output mechanisms, is being proclaimed loud and clear - for those who have ears to hear.



there is the link to more publications
http://www.universaldesign.ie/teachamplearn/resourcesbooksamparticles

10 things to know about Universal Design

http://www.universaldesign.ie/exploreampdiscover/10thingstoknowaboutud

48-hour Inclusive Design Challenge in Seoul

Inclusive design

When T-shaped met T-shaped from Enabled by Design on Vimeo.



Julia Cassim is Senior Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre, which she joined in 2000. Her main research focus since then has been the development of creative partnerships between people with disabilities and designers; ways to involve them in the design process to encourage innovative, inclusive thinking and spreading the word about inclusive design to design and business communities.

Detail Design/DCC Signage

Detail's signage created for for Dublin City Council Leisure Centres—“A complete set of a illustrative pictograms were designed. The system follows accessibility guidelines.”




Brainstorm 22/02/11

Arts and Disablitity Ireland

www.adiarts.ie—About page for Arts and Disablitity Ireland, a great organisation that promotes the inclusion of people with disablities in the Arts on all levels, as spectators, creators or participants. Ties in nicely with the Advocacy side of the organisation.

European Standards on Accessible Information

New document on the European standards for accessible information from Inclusion Ireland.

Inclusive Design Principles

Found this publication—It's focus is mainly architecture/interiors but it gives a handy and simple introduction to Inclusive design.

Lance Wyman

Lance Wyman is also a master of iconography that is easy to read and very accessible. Below is some of his work for the National Zoo and the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. His work is also softer than Aicher's, with a greater sense of play.