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

A bright, welcoming hallway brought to life with playful crane and floral illustrations in red and black. The terrazzo floor and clean white walls create a calm backdrop as a family walks through the space, adding a sense of movement and everyday life.

H2E studio co‑founder Ingūna Elere joins us for our July ’26 online seminar to demonstrate how clinical and structural constraints can be transformed into environments that are intuitive, emotionally supportive, and deeply human. An approach that is built on a three‑tier framework: Function, value and meaning. Ingūna uses two of H2E’s recently completed wayfinding schemes for the Latvian healthcare sector to illustrate this philosophy in action. She argues that environmental graphics and placemaking are not decorative, but essential therapeutic tools, turning complex buildings into spaces that are functional, meaningful, and emotionally restorative.

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Five open mouths excitedly sharing awesome ideas and accompanying hands 'exclaiming' to promote the SDS & SEGD London 17 September symposium (Postive Places) at London Design Festival 2026.

Discover what’s positive and exciting in the world right now for wayfinding and placemaking, from bold, people-first design to smart new tech.

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Third party events

Image to promote the 'Mapping 20-minute neighbourhoods' online seminar on 23 June '26.

Using the 20-minute neighbourhood as a guiding framework, the project maps access to key amenities—such as healthcare, food, and green space—across Great Britain and examines how these patterns vary across levels of deprivation. The session invites participants to reflect on how place-based planning can better support equitable, healthy communities.

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Brightly coloured (yellow, red and black) image including typography examples, for the Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2026 Conference in June '26

A biennial academic conference that convenes scholars from disciplines engaged with grapholinguistics and, more broadly, the systematic study of writing systems and their manifestation in written communication. The conference seeks to examine the current state of scholarship in this domain and to assess the significance of writing and writing systems within adjacent disciplines, including computer science, communication studies, linguistics, typography, psychology, and pedagogy. Of particular concern is the investigation of the expanding influence of Unicode and its implications for the future of literacy and textual practices in human societies.

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The OS Innovation Festival 2026

Start date: 24 June 2026
End date: 25 June 2026
A bespectacled middle-aged man speaking to an unseen audience against an Innovation Festival promotional background.

The OS Innovation Festival returns for two days of hands-on collaboration and geospatial problem solving. Bringing together leaders from government, utilities, tech, national resilience, finance and the built environment, the festival is designed to accelerate solutions to real world challenges using the power of location data.

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Photo of a culturally mixed group of older people inside smiling to camera.

How can interpretation practitioners build meaningful relationships with underrepresented communities and work together to create more inclusive and representative heritage experiences? In this webinar, Dr Norma Gregory, Inclusive Heritage Consultant and author of AHI’s Best Practice Guide Connecting and Co-creating with Underrepresented Communities, will explore practical approaches to building trust, sharing power and developing interpretation in genuine partnership with communities.

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Close up of wooden alphabet letter type blocks, displayed on a semi-reclined wooden frame (in the foreground), juxtaposed against a print room background

St Bride Foundation, located behind Fleet Street, houses the history of print and the skills that made Fleet Street the undisputed home of printing and publishing in London. A chance to explore our collections up close and learn about the fascinating history of print. Visit our atmospheric print workshop to see printing presses from the 18th to the 20th Century. Our workshop team, which includes journeymen and printers who worked in Fleet Street and the wider print industry, will take you through the story of print from the days of hot metal type. You will also explore our historical reading room where our resident expert will show you some of the treasures of our library collection, whether papyrus dating back to 1200BC, works printed by Caxton in the 15th century, or original artwork for typefaces by the likes of Edward Johnston and British road sign models by Margaret Calvert & Jock Kinneir.

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