HomePro ties up with BBDO Bangkok to launch furniture for visually-impaired

HomePro has collaborated with creative agency BBDO Bangkok to launch a line of furniture called the "7:1 Furniture Collection", made to be seen by the vision-impaired. The 7:1 Furniture Collection uses a 7:1 colour contrast ratio which is a contrast level that makes an object most accessible to people with impaired vision. BBDO used an international vision enhancement method by W3C organisation, which makes an object or content visible at Level AAA standard – the highest level of visibility. In addition, a specially-designed outline system was developed to provide the furniture with a particular shape that identifies the function to its user. Combined with the colour-contrast design, the design system brings what was barely visible back into full vision. The inspiration for this line of furniture came when BBDO discovered that 90% of all the furniture in the world use similar colour shades in their components, resulting in very low colour contrast in each piece. To people with lower visual ability, the furniture would just blend into the environment and become unrecognisable. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also found that those who suffer from visual impairment have their daily lives affected as everyday items are blurred out, such as kitchen sinks, cutting boards, toilets, chairs and lamps. When their eyes cannot identify each furniture and its function, all the furniture in the home is rendered useless and a hazard. 7:1 Furniture Collection aims to makes home safer and more useful for the vision-impaired while still appealing to people with normal vision, and HomePro hopes that with this new line of furniture, it will allow everyone to be "living fully" in their own home. Established since 1995 in Thailand, HomePro is a retail business of home center market for construction materials, house decoration products, and refurbishment of houses and residence places. Aiming to expand into the ASEAN region, HomePro set up its first overseas outlet in Malaysia back in 2015 and has since officiated six outlets across the country.