Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1942/39808
Title: Braille meets emoticons - A visual language for the visually impaired - Henry Van de Velde Award - Expo winners & Bronze prize in design Research
Contributors/Performers: VERBAENEN, Walda 
Issue Date: 2022
Abstract: The Henry van de Velde Awards showcase and laud Flemish designers, companies, products, projects, services and systems that, through the smart use of design, have a positive impact on society, the environment and the economy. The Henry van de Velde Awards are widely supported thanks to the shared vision of a professional and independent jury with significant expertise in the sector. With its own website, the official award ceremony, the exhibition and the publication, the Henry van de Velde Awards is a true platform for Flemish design. The Henry van de Velde Awards are presented by Flanders DC and are the most important design awards in Belgium. Because design is so broad, designers, organizations, clients and companies with recent products, services or projects can enter within the following nine categories: 

Business Innovation, Consumer, Crafts, Design Research, Digital Product, Environment, Graphics, Habitat and Spaces. The favorite project from these categories receives the Henry van de Velde Public Gold Award through an online vote. The jury also announces the winners of the Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement, Young Talent, Company and Ecodesign by OVAM Gold Awards.
Keywords: Innovative type and typographic design;Braille;Experiment
Document URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1942/39808
Link to publication/dataset: https://henryvandevelde.be/en/awards/22/braille-meets-emoticons
Discipline: design en architectuur
Research Context: Braille meets emoticons, a visual language for the visually impaired, was developed by Walda Verbaenen as a typographical experiment. This alphabet tries to make a bridge between a visual language and visually impaired and/or blind people, and appears as a 'Braille Dingbats'. Happy, enthousiastic, sad, combinations of both,... Emoticon images are universal images, used by people who can see, and therefore immediately can show in one character how they feel. But what about people who can see poorly or not? People who have never seen what a face looks like? People who are using the Braille language are forced to use the 26-letter alphabet to describe their emotions. This insight was a starting point for setting up an experimental addition to the existing Braille alphabet, an alphabet based on our emoticons, converted into a ‘dot’ language that characterizes Braille. The original Braille alphabet is built within a grid of 6 dots, and Braille numbers are fitting in a grid of 12 dots. This addition to the Braille alphabet is based on a grid of 9 dots to avoid confusion. 22 of the most common emoticons have been translated into this new Braille grid. The braille 'emoticon' letters are logically structured and could therefore be explained to people who are visually impaired or blind. It has been made as a typographical experiment next to Walda's research, and will be further explored on a later moment. Walda has another awarded project 'Phonotype' which forms the basis of her PhD at READSEARCH PXL Mad School of Arts and University of Hasselt (promotor Prof. dr. Ann Bessemans, co-promotor dr. Kevin Larson), started on 1/1/2020. This PhD, with title 'Phonobet - A new phonetic alphabet' handles the following research question: Can a new visual typographical system, representing the pronunciation of several languages, build a bridge in understanding language related phonemes and thus assists in reading aloud with the correct pronunciation?
Related Info: Media, Arts and Design [research group]
Category: AOR
Type: Artistic/designerly creation
Appears in Collections:Artistic/designerly creations

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