Ball Corporation and Minalba Brazil’s braille cap has won the Fast Company 2024 Design Innovation Awards for Latin America.
This type of closure is the first in the Brazilian market and offers two options: “water” and “sparkling water”. Hugo Magalhães, global marketing director at Ball, commented that there is a reason why these caps are the first of their kind in the Brazilian market. Braille is typically designed for flat surfaces and for reading from left to right. The cans are circular, so there is no obvious starting point.
The cap offers only a five-centimeter area for embossing, Magalhães explained. Working with such a limited area while maintaining the readability and quality of the braille can be a challenge. “Dot size and distance must be legible.”
To overcome this challenge, the team had to be very precise with both the distance between the braille cells and the size. Otherwise, the reader might interpret a different message than intended. The team used both sides of the tab and stamped from left to right on the cap, following its curved shape.
Ball worked with Fundação Dorina Nowill para Cegos, an expert organization in Brazil, to ensure that the braille embossed cap follows braille standards in terms of readability.
