Braille is universally defined as a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired. Invented in 1824 by Louis Braille, it consists of a code of 63 characters, each made up of up to 6 raised dots arranged in a six-position cell. The Braille dots are embossed onto the page, and are to be read from left
to right.
Louis, fed up with the makeshift writing systems that existed for the visually impaired at the time, drew inspiration from night writing when developing Braille. Night writing, also known as sonography, was developed by a French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars as a way to communicate inconspicuously at night. Sonography used a system of up to twelve dots arranged in two columns of up to six dots each. Louis’s modification of this system involved simply cutting the 12-dot cell in half.
Fast-forward nearly 200 years later, and less than 10% of legally blind Americans now read Braille. With the advancement of technology, use of the writing system has become less and less common. Given that so much information is now digitized, nearly anything can be conveyed using audio.
Braille Neue is a commentary on the effects digitalization of information has had on the use of Braille throughout the blind community. With letterforms whose dimensions mirror their Braille counterparts, Braille Neue is a guide to reading the slowly fading writing system. However, it’s existence as a digital, two-dimensional typeface renders it unreadable
to it’s only audience.
