20/20

Is it possible to navigate life without wearing them?

And is it sometimes better not to see every single thing?

These are some of the questions I asked myself at the beginning of my BA Project “20/20”. For people who haven’t naturally got the clarity of 20/20 vision, glasses can be so much more than just a tool for sight improvement. They shape how we see the world, how we see ourselves, and how others see us. And so our relationship to them can range from love to loathing or even pure indifference.

The two-part publication “20/20” brings together the voices of twelve individuals with vision impairments, each sharing their own unique experiences. Each volume focuses on a different aspect of visual perception:

The first book explores life through the lens of wearing glasses. Its counterpart looks into the challenges and emotions experienced by glasses-wearers when navigating the world without them. To make the reading experience fully immersive, the two books follow different design principles:

The first book is all about perfect legibility and clear vision: typography and images follow a consistent grid, and the photography is sharp and detailed. The second book aims to make the reading experience disorienting and more challenging. Through experimentation with typographic parameters e.g. kerning, tracking, word spacing and line spacing, the text requires more effort to read. Photographs taken through various plastic foils further explore the often dreamlike state of not wearing glasses.

Seeing, not seeing and being seen. The project provides insight into the complex emotions of glasses wearers both for people with and without 20/20 vision.