Design guideline adherence services

There are best practice and research-based guidelines, on producing graphic communication for people with vision impairments or ageing eyesight. There are also laws like the Equality Act 2010 (for England, Scotland and Wales) that require all public sector organisations to provide information in accessible formats, to include the public as much as possible. Additionally in 2018, the U.K. government introduced a new law for public sector website design, requiring them to pass the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 to level AA. Other examples of accessible documents are braille, large print, giant print, easy read or HTML, and items like editorial style or corporate identity branding guidelines.

Photo of an elderly person reading a newspaper travelling in mobility scooter

See it right: Making information accessible for people with sight problems book cover, with the title on the left in green and half a woman's face on the right wearing glasses

Clear, large and giant print transcription

The Royal National Institute for the Blind’s (RNIB) See It Right: Making Information Accessible for People With Sight Problems (RNIB, 2007) publication, for people with vision impairments.

The Stroke aphasia publication front cover, the title is in large purple handdrawn lettering with 2 people looking at cards below using greyscale photography

Aphasia

Aphasia is the inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific regions of the brain, usually from a stroke. The Stroke Association have produced Accessible Information Guidelines: Making Information Accessible for People With Aphasia (PDF) (Stroke Association, 2012).

plainlanguage.gov logo with a blue and red right single quotation mark on the left GOV UK logo, the UK government logo which shows a black rectangle background, then a white crown icon on the left, and to the right in large bold capital letters the text 'GOV.UK'

Basic plain English and clear language

Writing guidelines like plainlanguage.gov or GOV.UK Content Design Writing Guidelines.

AccessAbility 2 cover, shows the text 'accessability' in large black capital letters with the number 2 large in white reversed out of a yellow background

Accessible graphic communication best practice guidelines

AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design (PDF) handbook produced by RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers, 2019) in partnership with the Government of Ontario, Canada. Our work and research is published on page 25.

TypoGraphic 59 cover, light orangy brown background colour with small fluorescent orange text showing the title and articles title within

Typesetting composition rules

Jan Tschichold’s Penguin Books typesetting composition rules, in Nicky Barneby’s Rules of Composition in TypoGraphic 59, 2002.

Easy read publication cover with title in orange at the top, and a gridded composition of small images of different people at the bottom

Easy read

For people with learning difficulties as outlined in the publication Making Written Information Easier to Understand for People With Learning Disabilities (PDF) (Department of Health, 2010).

APA 7th edition manual front cover, has orange, red, blue and green rectangle boxes on the front with 'Publication Manual' in large white capital letters

American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual

We can edit text and format content, inline with editorial style guides.

Monotype Desktop Solutions series generic cover image, shows a thick black horizontal line and at the end, goes down. Then 'Monotype Desktop Solutions' in black text below

Monotype Desktop Solutions Series

We can design inline with and follow best practice advice, like the excellent Monotype Desktop Solutions Series:

Photo of a guide dog looking directly at you and people sitting down on a bus

Inclusive design

Understanding and designing for people with vision impairments, dyslexia, physical ability issues, dementia, or who are ageing.

The We Area Macmillan Cancer Support logo in large bold green handdrawn capital letters

Branding and corporate identity guidelines

Adherence to branding guidelines, for example: DHL couriers, NHS (National Health Service U.K.), Orange, Macmillan Cancer Support.

Technical diagram of measurements from how a front cover is supposed to be positioned

Printing file setup guidelines

Specifications like Clays, Lightning Source, Biddles.

Front cover of the EU 2009 readability guidelines in black and white text, with a grey box

Regulatory affairs and readability guidelines

Patient/medicine information leaflets are regulated and subject to laws, they have to be designed, written, structured and tested against directive guidelines and people.

The Information Standard quality mark logo in a black outline rectangle box, with a large i and s combined to form a logo. Has a tick at the bottom saying certified member

The Information Standard

We can help with graphic communication design to complement the requirements of the standard.

Figure 1 from the Typography.Guru paper. It shows the text Henry III, Henry Ill, and Henry 111 in 2 different typefaces, the above typeface is not very legible, and the below typeface is more legible Photo of a yellow UK car number plate with a letter or symbol not in usual language

Typographic legibility research

For example our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers [2019 4th Edition] published on the Typography.Guru website.

The WC3 WCAG logo with the name written in white on a blue background

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Adherence to level A, AA, or AAA, and other international website accessibility laws.

GOV UK logo, the UK government logo which shows a black rectangle background, then a white crown icon on the left, and to the right in large bold capital letters the text 'GOV.UK', the 'Design System' in smaller lowercase text

GOV.UK Design System

We can adhere to design systems like the GOV.UK Design System for U.K. government websites and communications.