This family of pictograms, designed for the British Museum, is available free to use. Email us* and we will send it by return. In the spirit of attempting a universal visual language, we think that wide use of pictograms can only increase accessibility. At last, a coherent alternative to the clumsy British Standard pictograms.
The set of 44 symbols includes the impaired vision pictogram, hearing loop, baby changing facilities, first aid, as well as more prosaic facilities such as audio guides, tickets, lost luggage, and the quintessential ‘Do not feed the pigeons’.
The Opentype font is called Sloane, and comprises two parts: Sloane Building and Sloane Map.
Sloane Building is designed for directional signing. Sloane Map is primarily used for museum plans: it has been designed to be legible at very small sizes, down to 4mm on a hand-held printed plan. The significant difference between the fonts is the bounding box which all Sloane Map pictograms have and which enables coherent stacking of pictograms. All pictograms are available in each font.
Designed by Lucy or Robert with Maarten Idema for Geoff Pickup at the British Museum.
