Dots & Pixels

Conference Brand Identity

TypeBrand/Identity

TimelineFall 2025

RoleBrand Designer

ToolsFigma, Illustrator

Theme

Inclusive Innovation Across Disciplines

Dots & Pixels is a conference identity built around one shared idea: communication systems evolve, but their structure stays familiar. The theme centers on interdisciplinary innovation, showing how art, design, and technology can work together to create more inclusive communication.

Simon Smith's work in music engraving translates notation into digital type systems; Mike Hudson's research into tactile and embossed reading systems highlights braille as a dot-based language; and Susan Kare's early Apple icons demonstrate how pixels became a universal visual language. Across music notation, braille, and interface icons, the same pattern appears: small units, dots, lines, and pixels, become legible meaning. The brand concept visualizes that continuum, from engraved marks to tactile dots to screen pixels, as a single story of accessible communication.

Speakers

Featured Presenters

Simon Smith

Simon Smith is a pianist, composer and the Head of Engraving at Muse Group, primarily working on the MuseScore notation software, and where he is jointly responsible for the development of its new music notation font. For twenty years he worked as a music engraver and music editor.

Mike Hudson

Mike Hudson is a specialist in accessible design and a leading advocate for improving the experience of blind and visually impaired readers. With a background in graphic design and a passion for assistive technology, Hudson has worked extensively on projects that explore tactile systems for communication and reading.

Susan Kare

Susan Kare is a pioneering graphic designer known for her work in the development of iconic visual elements in early personal computing. As the lead designer for Apple in the 1980s, she created many of the company’s most recognizable icons and user interface elements, including the trash can, the command key, and the Macintosh smiley face.

Typeface

GT Haptik

Grilli Type

GT Haptik is the result of research by Reto Moser and Tobias Rechsteiner from 2009 to 2014. The project explored whether a Latin typeface could be read through touch while blindfolded. The resulting typeface can function as an alternative tactile reading system, with uppercase forms designed for both tactile and visual legibility. Lowercase forms were added later to support longer text use while maintaining an optically balanced texture.