Spring 2024
1.5 Months
InDesign, Illustrator, Glyphs Software
The Whirlwind Typeface is a display typeface that is meant to be readable for everyone regardless if they have a visual impairment. This typeface family comes in 3 versions which allows for everyone to be able to read it, and even has a variant that allows people to learn Braille.
View SpecimenGlobally, 295 million people live with moderate-to-severe visual impairment, and 43 million experience complete blindness. While progress is being made to create a more inclusive world for those with visual disabilities, there’s still plenty of room to grow and make a difference together. Despite advancements in inclusivity, there’s still a significant gap in accessible reading materials for people who are blind. Integrated typefaces, such as tactile fonts that combine Braille and traditional letters, are rare, limiting the options for creating truly universal designs.
Design an integrated display typeface that bridges the gap between accessibility and creativity, offering a versatile solution for various design projects. This typeface aims to promote inclusivity by making print materials more accessible to individuals with visual impairments while maintaining a visually appealing aesthetic for all readers.
My research consisted of looking at current braille fonts out there and if there were any other fonts out there that combined braille with the English alphabet. Not only that, but I did spend a lot of time looking at Braille and trying to brainstorm how I could possibly make this font.
I did numerous sketches, trying to develop systems that would work with not only the English alphabet but Braille as well. I also wanted to create a display typeface that is fun and whimsical and also can play off of the roundness that Braille is. I ended up sketching up what is now the system that Whirlwind is. Which consists of hurricane-like symbols connecting that play on the roundness of braille and create that energetic whimsical feeling.
The final typeface comes in 3 forms:
Whirlwind Braille: This Braille is just like regular braille with all of its systems remaining the same as regular braille. This braille is a part of the Whirlwind family as it can be used with Whirlwind regular to create a typeface where a person can visually read both the braille and the text at once.
Whirlwind Regular: This version of the typeface has no braille in it and can be used as a fun display typeface.
Whirlwind Integrated: This takes Whirlwind Regular and Whirlwind Braille and combines it where the braille is cut out of the forms of the font. This concept of cutting out the braille forms to leave negative space is for printing purposes, so the print press would be able to create those bevels for people with visual impairments.
The Whirlwind Typeface Specimen is a set of three individual booklets that, when combined, tell the complete story of the typeface—from initial concept to final design. What makes these booklets unique is their versatility; each one can be unfolded to reveal a full-sized poster on the back, transforming the specimen into both an informative and visually striking experience.