Down's Syndrome Scotland

Down’s Syndrome Scotland work to help people with Down’s syndrome reach their full potential by providing information and support to them, their families, carers and professionals at whatever age and stage of life.

Over the years, Down's Syndrome Scotland has published quite an extensive library of resources for both people with Down's syndrome and their families and carers. Without ever having established a consistent style of graphic communication, inevitably the national charity's visual tone of voice started to look disjointed. Down's Syndrome Scotland realised this and so I was tasked with refreshing their communications to help establish a new clarity.

A fresh design approach has been deployed across a variety of communication types. New core brand assets have been created to better engage with the end-user, and a consistent and confident look and feel is now clearly evident.

Down's Syndrome Scotland

Down’s Syndrome Scotland work to help people with Down’s syndrome reach their full potential by providing information and support to them, their families, carers and professionals at whatever age and stage of life.

Over the years, Down's Syndrome Scotland has published quite an extensive library of resources for both people with Down's syndrome and their families and carers. Without ever having established a consistent style of graphic communication, inevitably the national charity's visual tone of voice started to look disjointed. Down's Syndrome Scotland realised this and so we were tasked with refreshing their communications to help establish a new clarity.

A fresh design approach has been deployed across a variety of communication types. New core brand assets have been created to better engage with the end-user, and a consistent and confident look and feel is now clearly evident.

Down's Syndrome Scotland

Down’s Syndrome Scotland work to help people with Down’s syndrome reach their full potential by providing information and support to them, their families, carers and professionals at whatever age and stage of life.

Over the years, Down's Syndrome Scotland has published quite an extensive library of resources for both people with Down's syndrome and their families and carers. Without ever having established a consistent style of graphic communication, inevitably the national charity's visual tone of voice started to look disjointed. Down's Syndrome Scotland realised this and so I was tasked with refreshing their communications to help establish a new clarity.

A fresh design approach has been deployed across a variety of communication types. New core brand assets have been created to better engage with the end-user, and a consistent and confident look and feel is now clearly evident.

Services provided
Research
Brand communications refresh
Visual identity
Design for print
Design for web
Illustration art-direction
Print advertising
Online advertising

Collaboration with
Michael Driver

Typeface selection when accessibility is key

Many of Down’s Syndrome Scotland's publications are aimed at people with learning disabilities. They are also likely to be read by people with impaired vision. For people people such as this, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. It was a crucial part of my brief to make sure the new designs were accessible to as many people as possible. I achieved this by using clean, clutter-free layouts and typefaces and point sizes that met RNIB guidelines.

Headline typeface
I chose Filson Soft as Down Syndrome Scotland's headline typeface to give a soft, friendly and approachable feel to the design scheme.

Body copy typeface
For the body copy typeface I selected a typeface called FS Me which was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts. It has tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity.  

Typeface selection when accessibility is key

Many of Down’s Syndrome Scotland's publications are aimed at people with learning disabilities. They are also likely to be read by people with impaired vision. For people people such as this, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. It was a crucial part of our brief to make sure our designs were as accessible to as many people as possible. We achieved this by using clean, clutter-free layouts and typefaces and point sizes that met (and often exceeded) RNIB guidelines.

Headline typeface
We chose Filson Soft as Down Syndrome Scotland's headline typeface to give a soft, friendly and approachable feel to the design scheme.

Body copy typeface
For the body copy typeface we selected a typeface called FS Me which was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts. It has tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity.  

Typeface selection when accessibility is key

Many of Down’s Syndrome Scotland's publications are aimed at people with learning disabilities. They are also likely to be read by people with impaired vision. For people people such as this, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. It was a crucial part of our brief to make sure our designs were as accessible to as many people as possible. We achieved this by using clean, clutter-free layouts and typefaces and point sizes that met (and often exceeded) RNIB guidelines.

Headline typeface
We chose Filson Soft as Down Syndrome Scotland's headline typeface to give a soft, friendly and approachable feel to the design scheme.

Body copy typeface
For the body copy typeface we selected a typeface called FS Me which was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts. It has tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity.

The delivery of a Brand Toolkit which ensures that visual consistency is future-proofed 

It was important to avoid Down's Syndrome Scotland's future communications to again become visually disjointed. To enure against this I designed an extensive Brand Toolkit that DSS staff or their designers could reference to make sure all designs were 'on-brand'. Consistency is key.

The delivery of a Brand Toolkit which ensures that visual consistency is future-proofed 

It was important to avoid Down's Syndrome Scotland's future communications to again become visually disjointed. To enure against this I designed an extensive Brand Toolkit that DSS staff or their designers could reference to make sure all designs were 'on-brand'. Consistency is key.

The delivery of a Brand Toolkit which ensures that visual consistency is future-proofed 

It was important to avoid Down's Syndrome Scotland's future communications to again become visually disjointed. To enure against this I designed an extensive Brand Toolkit that DSS staff or their designers could reference to make sure all designs were 'on-brand'. Consistency is key.