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:

As well as raising the profile of our disciplines, we offer members a programme of events, resources and initiatives to help them:

To join choose a membership plan that suits you and sign up!

Our events

02-public-typography-in-Japan

15 October 2026 (1pm BST) Approachable, friendly, and playful – these are the qualities most often associated with rounded sans typefaces in Europe. Yet these associations are far from universal. In Japan, rounded sans are often the voice of authority – they are not only far more commonly used in public typography than in many […]

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Third party events

Font Tech & AI

Start date: 8 October 2026
End date: 10 October 2026
A promotional graphic with bold white text on a dark blue background reads: “Font Tech & AI – The latest in font tech, type tools & AI. Online conference on Oct 8, 9 & 10.” A small red circular logo with “ilt” appears in the top right.

Building on the success of our previous Fonts & AI conference, we are thrilled to announce that this year we are expanding the program to include a full range of font technology and tools. We will spend 3 days looking at how designers and font makers are working, the tools they are creating and using, as well as the latest developments in AI in relation to the world of type. We will catch up on what leaders in this space are doing, and see if and where AI can plug into font workflows. We will also take a hard look at what machine learning says it offers vs what it delivers on, its successes and failures, and questions of the ethics of AI use and environmental impact.

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Image to promote Femstival (The Gendered City) taking place in October 2026, showing red lines superimposed over an outdoor urban space.

Become part of one of the first and biggest gatherings for feminist urban design, placemaking, art, music, and radical city-making. FEMSTIVAL is a space for urbanists, designers, artists, architects, activists, and communities to come together through ideas, exhibitions, collective learning, music, and cultural exchange, reimagining how cities can be designed through care, equity, and participation.

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Logo for Interact and the European Union’s Interreg programme. The word “Interact” appears in blue on the left. To the right is the EU flag with the text “Co-funded by the European Union – Interreg.” Below, a caption reads “Interreg for Urban Sustainable Mobility – EIT Urban Mobility.

EIT Urban Mobility will participate in the next The Interreg for a Greener Europe webinar edition, providing a platform for the Interreg community to exchange insights on Policy Objective 2 (PO2) topics.

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A vintage typographic specimen sheet showing the word “Contradicteur” in a large decorative serif typeface at the top, surrounded by size and style annotations. Below it are two columns of smaller French sample text, each labelled with typographic measurements such as “Corps 6” and “Corps 7.” The sheet displays variations in type size, spacing, and style for comparison.

This talk by Craig Eliason examines the development and publicising of the Auriol family, arguing that its promotion as a text face, while not commercially successful, was remarkably innovative.

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A graphic with the text “Women in Signs and Graphics” on the left and a light‑green silhouette of a woman’s head and shoulders on the right, set against a white and pale green background.

Women in Signs and Graphics UK is set to hold its second live networking event on 14 October 2026, bringing women from across the signage industry together for a day of networking, learning and collaboration. The event will take place from 10am to 4pm at the premises of trade-only signage supplier Very Displays in Market Harborough. It is being held in partnership with the British Signs and Graphics Association (BSGA), following the recent announcement of a media partnership between the organisations, and is sponsored by Very Displays.

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