January 4 is World Braille Day. It’s the birthday of Louis Braille, the Frenchman who invented the code in 1821.
Braille is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired. It is traditionally written with embossed paper. Braille-users can read computer screens and other electronic supports thanks to refreshable braille displays. [Wikipedia]
For this post I collected the 20 best videos found on the net.
Commercials
Wimpy Braille Burgers
Fast-food chain Wimpy wanted to let visually impaired people know that they offered braille menus in all of their restaurants. To spread the word they built braille burgers that blind people could actually read.
All Videos after the jump.
Coffee Braille
Rái in Brazil did something similar for Starbucks.
Executive Creative Directors: Camila Maschietto, Maurício Cavalcanti
Creative Directors: André Baldez, Bruno Cirello
Art Director / Illustrator / Designer: Marcel Cuzziol
Copywriter: Diogo Patoilo
Photographer: Fernando Manso
Fundação Dorina Nowill: Open your eyes.
Great visualisation of braille against a black background. Music from Snow Patrol with Open your Eyes.
More about the campaign here.
ChildVision, Ireland’s national center for the blind.
The animation plays out across the pages of a book with the heightened textural feel of letterpress printing.
Director – Gavin Kelly
3D Lead – Sam Boyd
3D Animation – Will Sharkey
Born to be free from the Belgium Braille Liga.
It’s in Dutch but the tagline speak for itself.
Agency : Van Piperzeel
Creaction : Pierre Urbaniak & Massimo Regaglia
Director : Fred de Loof
Production : Witloof
Braille It – ‘Missing Spy’
This is theatre stunt was seen before the James Bond movie Skyfall.
Agency: thisisdare
Post-production: Postpro Media, Vancouver
Executive Producer: Kylie Kumar
VFX Artists: Randy Egan, Ray Sun
Sound Design & Music: Adelphoi Music, London
Executive Producer: Greg Moore
Sound Designer: Adelphoi Music
Sound Mix: Koko Productions, Vancouver
Executive Producer: Steve Lowe
Sound Engineer: Chris Hobbs
Two spots also from Belgium Braille Liga: A Blind Call
It’s based on making a call by accident to the first recorded contact on your cellphone address book.
So how about turn that into a good action, by placing The Braille League number on the first slot ?
Armando wrote about the interactive part of the campaign here.
Eye Care Foundation: Eye talking
This is a commercial made for an institution called Eye Care.
Products/Design
Thai Blind Association: Storybook For All Eyes
“The Storybook For All Eyes” was developed with a font that can be read by all children by integrating the Braille alphabet with the English alphabet. In addition, every character illustration was embossed with a hidden image for the visually impaired to perceive.
Kids are different, but with this book, they see the same world.
E-Book: issuu.com/rookfloro/docs/mrlightandmrdark
Agency: BBDO Bangkok
Chief Creative Officer: Suthisak Sucharittanonta
Creative Director: Chalit Manuyakorn
Association CD: Apichai Inthutsingh
Copywriter: Thasorn Boonyanate, Rook Floro
Art Director: Rook Floro, Prasit Vitayasamrit
Typographer: Natira Wongpaitoon
Graphic Advisor: Thanonchai Sornsriwichai
Storyteller: Rook Floro
Print Craftman: Thanutphol Pornlikitchotwong
Print Craftman: Panus Saeli
Print Craftman: Supalerk Sruruchyanont
Account Director: Taksina Vasaruchapong
Producer: Ladawan Vilainart
Publisher: Prasarnmitr
Photographer: BOB EYE VIEW
Music Composer: Orwell / L’arriere 2
Director: Thasorn Boonyanate
Julia – My Favourite Things
Julia describes her favourite things such as her Perkins Brailler, iPod VoiceOver, a voice recorder, and a refreshable braille display.
Blind Maps: Navigation System for the iPhone (Concept)
The concept focuses on the visually impaired, and explores a device to improve their ability to discover and navigate through a city.
This was part of a 36 hour project for the Copenhagen Institute of interaction Design (ciid.dk)
Credits:
Andrew Spitz (andrew-spitz.com)
Markus Schmeiduch (smeidu.com)
Ruben van der Vleuten (rubenvandervleuten.com)
Haptica Braille Watch Concept
A project from David Chavez. Haptica™ is a Braille watch that allows a blind person to check the time quickly and accurately without an audible disruption.
Fittle
Fittle is an attempt to help visually challenged kids visualize shapes of objects that they read about, through a playful word puzzle. By feeling the braille letters embossed on the word blocks, and then feeling the shape that s/he has fit together, the kid can touch what the object might feel like in real.
Art
Haptic Words “In Dot We Trust”
Braille is more then just a functional tool which makes reading possible for blind people…
In dot we trust…
Haptic Words is an art and street intervention project from Germany.
More information and photography on their Facebook Page.
Braille – The World At My FingerTips
Edited by Justin Everest
Sound Exploration: Text to Music
A sound exploration that repurposes the familiar — written text — and translates it into music. The aim was to give text a form beyond just the written and spoken language. Text was translated into Braille which functioned as sheet music that could play music by being fed through the music box. The music being played in the video is the transcribed conversation between two designers.
In collaboration with Raisa Park.
Website: raisapark.com, annalisaswank.com
Belgium Braille Liga: graffiti
Kaycee Ng: I See
This video is about the how people who are completely blind still ‘see’ the world, just not with their eyes.
This project followed a system which integrates sound with the structure of braille lettering. Each braille cell/letter consists of a combination of six dots. Assigned a to each dot is a note so that each letter would produce a different chord. This way the audience experiences the type through sound. This may sound abstract, but what is braille, but type through touch? This project explores the reading experience through a different sense.
