Back in March 2014, a Indian-American teen claimed, to great media fanfare, that the US government could save ink and therefore resources and money by switching typefaces. What seemed a rather clever suggestion on the surface was quickly shot down by the type design community, and though we can commend a 14 year old boy for having his ideas and heart in the right place, the professionals, it turns out, had a point. It also turned out that this was neither the first time anyone had thought about typefaces and ink consumption, nor was this the first time someone had meticulously studied the differences between typefaces with respect to this issue.

The responses and critique however were largely aimed at shooting down the idea and touched less on what we as designers are doing about the huge amount of resources that go into the industry we are all part of. Was this a missed opportunity for a wider conversation about our role in this?

Image: Studio Roosegaarde

We were fortunate recently to be at Kyoorius Design Yatra where Daan Roosegaarde, of Studio Roosegaarde, gave a stirring presentation of his work. Of all the work he showed, it was the Smog Free Project that has really lingered in my thoughts, and moved me beyond awe to think about its relation to my own field. What, I wondered, would be our equivalent in visual communication terms? This giant air purifier, installable in parks and other public spaces, cleans 30,000 m³ of air per hour. It uses ‘no more electricity than a waterboiler’ and is powered by green wind energy. The intention, he explained, was not to provide a solution to our dirty air, but to stir the conversation. Change by example. Not waiting for governments to move on this, but rather acting with the intention of becoming a small part, even a trigger perhaps, for the wider change that needs to happen. As a recent article in The Guardian put it:

Roosegaarde has far-reaching ambitions for the tower, which is part of his Smog-Free Project. ‘It’s not only intended to be a local solution that creates clean parks or playgrounds,’ he explains. ‘It’s also a sensory experience of a clean future, a place where people can experience clean air.’ He hopes to bring together governments, NGOs, the clean tech industry and ordinary citizens.
‘We can work together to make whole cities smog-free,’ he says. ‘We can wait — or we can participate.’

This made me think of another project, somewhat more familiar in medium, which I think is ‘participating’ and pushing this conversation further.

Ryman Eco is an ‘unfinished font’, or as I like to think, a font which finishes itself. It is a font which uses ink-spread — the bleeding of ink on the page which occurs with common ink jet printing — to create a full form. Meaning the characters don’t need to be a solid, filled forms, and therefore use 33% less ink.

Image: Dan Rhatigan, Ryman Eco

Dan Rhatigan, Type Director at Monotype and the designer behind Ryman Eco, explains his expectations of the project:

…Ryman Eco is an experiment, and like all good experiments you collect data, revisit the hypothesis. My idea for Ryman Eco is that we will be able to revisit it periodically over time and improve it and refine it and really get it better and better and better…

I don’t expect using 33% less ink to save the world directly, but I expect it to be one step in a bigger conversation about how we can save things, I expect it to be one gesture that triggers you to think about what else you can do to make an impact.

The examples of Roosegaarde and Rhatigan suggest that the the answers we’re looking for might not come from easy fixes that make for good media stories. The people that will be at the forefront of this conversation and this change, will be people with the dedication and perseverance to understand complex scenarios and attempt informed interventions, at their level. Some, like Roosegaarde and Rhatigan, will stir this conversation with provocations which are extraordinary examples of what design can do, whether it is fine engineering or craft or thinking with hope and ingenuity around today’s problems. Solutions that make people sit up and ask, like the audience member at the end of Roosegaarde’s talk, ‘but shouldn’t we be getting to the root of the air problem.’ Yes, exactly!

This is not to suggest that we can’t or shouldn’t play our part—quite the opposite—more voices are needed. Many of the answers, as we already know, are actually simple. The point now is, who is participating in the conversation?

One Less Cartridge, by Andy Lockley

The capitol X has one of the most complicated structures, just in figuring out how you get all these lines to interact in the middle, this net of parts that leave all these spaces in the middle free for the ink to go.—Dan Rhatigan

This post was first published on Codesign blog.

FS Me is a typeface family designed by Jason Smith of Fontsmith. Developed with Mencap, a leading UK charity for people with learning disabilities, it was designed to meet, and then exceed, the recommendations of government accessibility guidelines. FS Me aimed to become a typeface which could be used across the scope of communication design — not an accessible typeface for a specific audience but an inclusive typeface for everyone.

“FS Me helps me understand things that I read. If I understand more I feel more independent.” — Lorainne Bellamy, Mencap Research Panel

Accessibility, when it comes to communication design, is about providing access to content, making design choices which actively aid understanding through legibility and readability. This is particularly important for people with learning difficulties, who may find some typefaces hinder their reading experience.

Image credit: Fontsmith

Accessibility guidelines typically recommend using a sans serif typeface like Arial at a minimum of 12 points. This can be challenging on a practical level because of space constraints, and in terms of context because sometimes Arial, in fact usually Arial, is not the most appropriate choice for every project. To fall back on such homogeny when it comes to selecting a typeface for its accessible qualities does not do justice to the reader, whoever they may be.

The FS Me project set out to meet the needs of both the designer and the reader.

Image credit: Fontsmith

Keeping in mind that there are many different types of learning disabilities which can affect reading in different ways, there are some challenges that are common, and were highlighted by the research that FS Me is built on. For example:

Distinguishing between certain characters, particularly bs from ds and ps from qs can be challenging for some readers. Many typefaces simply reflect these characters and give no other clues to distinguishing between them.

Reading letter combinations. The difference between ‘rn’ and ‘m’, for example, can be difficult to make out.

The perceived warmth or friendliness of certain fonts, like Comic Sans (above), often makes them popular choices when it comes to making accessible materials, rather than whether they are appropriate for the age and context of the reader. But being accessible does not mean being casual or childish.

Image credit: Fontsmith

In response to these issues FS Me was designed with:
More open counters and a focus on accentuating distinct character elements to help in quick and clear identification. This is most apparent in the extended ascenders and descenders, serifs on the capital I, and larger than average dots on the i and j.
A carefully determined stroke width in FS Me Regular weight to aid legibility based on project research.
Differentiation of forms, like the rounder curvature of the r which, when preceding an n, is less likely to be read as an m.
The choice of single story ‘handwriting-style’ a and g, as opposed to double story characters.
A warmth and friendliness which comes across in the slight rounding off of terminals, but isn’t exaggerated to the point of being childlike.

FS Me is about design that doesn’t patronise. People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children – a beautifully-designed font for everyone. — Fontsmith

The project didn’t lose sight of standards that make it a viable, commercial typeface — perhaps the key to its success as a widely used and desired typeface across sectors and contexts. The family has several weights and standard as well as pro versions, making it versatile for such wide usage.

Tested by the target readers, developed from the insights of sector specialists, and designed by type professionals, FS Me is good example of what it means to design with not for people. Collaboration, but not compromise, which didn’t lose sight of the design rigour that should be applied to all typeface design, for everyone.

Image credit: Fontsmith

Supporters’ Scarves is a recent project by Common Office. In their words, the project “appropriates the football scarf for supporters of six political causes; equality; affordable housing; the welfare state; the national health service; public transport; and new towns.”
This projects has stayed with me, I suspect, because of its powerful simplicity and considered execution. What makes it interesting to me, in the context of Rising, is the aspect of ‘appropriation’, not a difficult thing to do but difficult to do well.

Appropriation can be an effective device. The process of consciously lifting something out out of its typical context and using it in another, can create new meaning and ways of looking at something. However there’s also a fine line between appropriation, pastiche (imitation of style), or worse, plain stealing (claiming an idea as your own). Creating something which has longevity and deeper resonance requires an understanding of the thing being appropriated.

1.Image source: 1 & 2. Eric Kilby, Football at Fenway.

So what is a football scarf?

The football supporters’ scarf has been around for over a century in the UK — a mark of pride and a statement of where the wearer’s allegiance lies. You still see people wearing the original two colour striped scarves but increasingly the humble scarf has become an important commercial outlet for teams, sold as expensive official merchandise, with their crest and name knitted in.

Outside the stadium the scarves become a walking advertisement of a supporters’ team, whilst inside they are can be held up like a banner. They have to be seen and read at a distance and they have to make a strong visual statement when seen as a mass. As a result football scarves typically use only two prominent colours with bold typography.

But what has all this got to do with visual communication for social impact?

The football scarf is such a simple, but potent symbol of support for something, whether you’re a football supporter or not, that it lends itself to the act of getting behind any cause. The desire to be part of something collectively, and own it as part of our visual identity, is not unique to football supporters. We want to show we believe in something, perhaps encourage others to consider these causes too. We’ve seen this in the rubber wristbands of social causes like Livestrong and in Facebook profiles changed to equal signs in support of HRC equal marriage campaign. But rarely do we see such causes using a medium quite as loaded and constructed as the supporters’ scarf, lending the project a longevity and freshness which also transcends age and class strata.

An important part of the project is the typography of Supporters’ Scarves. With the key piece of information being text-based, a typeface was needed which was practical — something that could accommodate the varied lengths of texts, as well as appropriate to the context and meaning of the different messages. Common Office commissioned Åbäke to create a custom font for the project, British Rail Ultra-Condensed, an ultra-condensed sans which comfortably accommodates varied messages; much longer than the usual team names on football scarves. The font is based on Rail Alphabet, designed by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir around 1965 for the National Rail Service signage (now privatised) and once used in the state healthcare service. In essence a typeface that once belonged to the public and public space, making it apt for the public issues on the scarves, whilst also addressing their practical requirements with the clarity and impact of a typeface designed for signage.

This project stands out for me because it is made to last, in design aesthetic and production, and uses a visual language that is understood and familiar, whilst still developing it in a way which makes it meaningful to the message and refreshing in its new context. A result of mindful consideration for the visual language and medium being used.

Except where mentioned all images by Erika Wall.