Welcome to the Sign Design Society
The Sign Design Society (SDS) is for anyone interested in information and graphic communication within buildings and public spaces, including:
- Wayfinding
- Interpretative graphics
- Brand and experiential/environmental graphics
- Statutory and health & safety signs
As well as raising the profile of our disciplines, we offer members a programme of events, resources and initiatives to help them:
- Keep up to date and improve their practice
- Find potential consultants, collaborators & employees
- Promote their work and capabilities
To join choose a membership plan that suits you and sign up!
Our events
Whether you like it or not, as a designer you’re in the business of influencing people’s behaviour. While there may be questionable aspects of this – in terms of driving people towards certain content online or certain products in store – there’s also a more benevolent and beneficial side. This can range from encouraging people to adopt healthier behaviours (such as walking) to stopping them harming themselves (such as by providing warnings to not go into areas that are unsafe). Rather than just saying ‘do this’ or ‘don’t walk here’, there are other ways of influencing people’s behaviour that may be more effective. As designers, we can help ourselves by understanding the science of behaviour change, so that we can be more effective in nudging people towards behaviours that are better, healthier, and more sustainable. It’s certainly worth having these ideas in your toolbox so that you can improve the likelihood that your designs are most effective at helping people to do the right thing. So, what are these ways of influencing people’s behaviour? In this talk Andrew Barker introduces three of the most widely used models of behaviour change, ones that have a rigorous body of evidence to support their effectiveness. And he suggests ways to integrate them into the sorts of projects typically worked on as part of placemaking and wayfinding design projects.
Richard Ardagh talks about his recently published book, Type Archived, which documents the treasures of traditional typefounding held at London’s legendary Type Archive
Interested in a membership?
News
2nd edition Sign design guide now available to buy!
The new edition of the guide continues to provide practical guidance to experts and non-specialists alike, based on both best practice in inclusive design and the latest research.
Third party events
As part of the Bartlett’s UCL 200 celebrations, join us for an exhibition exploring how built environment research shapes the city and influences daily life in London.
Join the Access Association this spring for a timely and essential seminar dedicated to advancing gender equity in our built environment, policies, and public services. In alignment with International Women’s Day, this event brings together experts, lived experience and advocates to explore critical, often-overlooked aspects of access and inclusion for women and girls.
We’ve invited Rejane dal Bello, Richard Ardagh, Henrik Kubel and Nigel Cottier as our stellar line up, talking all things designing, writing and curating for their latest publications, PechaKucha style.
Renaissance and Modernist approaches to letter design share a common reliance on geometry as a mediating structure between writing and architecture, though they deploy it with very different intentions. Revisiting Renaissance letter construction manuals and Modernist typographic and architectural models, this talk examines how geometry evolved from an idealizing analytical tool into a constructive language for shaping the modern world. These historical frameworks are distilled in the architectural lettering of Enric Miralles (1955–2000), whose drawings dissolve the distinction between writing, technical lettering, and architectural form. By examining Miralles’s plans and their later typographic interpretations, Manuel Sesma’s lecture reopens the question of lettering as an integral component of architectural design.
This panel brings together transport experts from New York and London to examine the challenge of transport equity in both cities. It explores how leaders such as Sadiq Khan and newly elected Zoran Mamdani can use existing powers and resources to better serve underserved residents, and what trade-offs that may require.