designing for all

By Stephanie Ross
Swiss Typography is a graphic design style created in Switzerland in the 1950s. It accentuates cleanliness, readability, flat colour and precise grid systems.

Jan Tischold is a famous designer who has dedicated his life to typography. He is a ‘leading advocate for modernist design’. (Wikipedia) He designed a “universal alphabet” and also a number of modernist sans serif fonts including Transit, Saskia, Zeus and Sabon (pictured).

Swiss Typography and modernism were the inspiration for my second poster entry into the EIDD Ico-grada competition.

The concept for this poster took a lot of time and research. I came across the idea with the universal stick man throughout the idea generation phase with other classmates. It is a very diverse icon and was easily altered to convey ideas of disability. I created my own version in Illustrator and varied the shape by eliminating specific parts. The idea of inclusion and solidarity was represented by having the stick men standing connected like that of a paper doll chain.