ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART
202
how legibility and accessibility interact!
Info:
Identity System
Website Design
Animation
In collaboration with Camilleleflem,
Costas Kalogeropoulos
To think about accessibility and inclusion within design; what does an accessible graphic design
practice look like? What are the barriers faced by d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent students,
and what provisions can design provide to meet them? How do we design for a future that does
not aim to eradicate disability but respects and supports a diverse range of needs?
Our priority within this process has been to challenge our assumptions about what ‘good’ design
is and how it operates. The blended modes of learning that we as students have operated within
for the last two years have meant that design happens in both local and global arenas, physically &
digitally, in our studios, bedrooms, kitchens. When we speak about disability justice, we do so with
a view that whatever we were doing before has not been enough – it is our task to think about how
design can produce vital new knowledges that challenge the norms and that looks towards a future
that we want to see.
The identity becoming a moment to create conversation between students, staff and visitors about
how legibility and accessibility interact. The identity stimulates this dialogue through computer
generated typography and animation presented alongside image descriptions, which utilise Bionic
Reading by Renato Casutt, as key moments in the design that are not only informative but also
aesthetically considered.
This is an ongoing process but through starting this conversation we push for better access provisions
in the Gradate Shows and across the college and the arts more widely. This goes beyond a visual identity
and encourages broad communication across college and further into the arts sector. Whilst this hasn’t
been an easy process we hope that this means future years will allow the conversation about disability
justice and design to continue.