Design Award
Please Touch
Location
Virginia Commonwealth University, graduate thesis project
Designer
Elizabeth Hiller
Design Team
Elizabeth Hiller Advisor: Lara Chessin
Photographer
Jack L. Hiller, Elizabeth Hiller
For her graduate thesis, the student explored the use of texture as a medium to deliver a visual message. By emphasizing that vision exists as a result of the imagination rather than as a result of functioning eyes, the intent of this project was to challenge the discipline of visual communications to include the blind community. The author demonstrates to visual communicators that the use of texture and the sense of touch improve the process of seeing, both for the blind and the sighted. This book documents the research, along with the creative realization of the project: a tactile exhibit that asked visitors to rely only on their sense of touch as the translator of the content.