Member-only story
Designed to Save Lives: The Typography Behind Healthcare
A breakdown of how great typography impacts lives every single day
Do you know that good typography can save lives?
While it’s true that it won’t perform CPR on a person, it plays a very important role in hospitals.
Typography’s role in healthcare is not new. It dates back long ago, since hospitals started becoming official institutions.
Back in the 19th century, hospitals needed to formalise their signage and documents.
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, herself pushed for the standardisation of legible data in charts and records.
She brought a visually analytical approach to medicine, influenced by her studies of maths from an early age.
The image above shows how Florence used charts and data to show how soldiers were dying more from diseases than injuries.
She didn’t just throw numbers at people, she used visual design to make the message hit home.
