Featuring publications of relevance to our industry, including those cited in SDS e-newsletter lead articles and suggested additional reading, we’ve recently relaunched the SDS Reader’s Corner book of the month page. Each month we will showcase a suggested read that relates to our professional areas of interest, be it a seminal publication or something more tangential. We hope the books we select will offer you insights and inspiration.
If you any suggestions of books, particularly newly published ones, that you think would be of inte arest to our community, please email us: enquiries@signdesignsociety.co.uk.
For January / February ’26 we feature Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work by Adrian Shaughnessy and Margaret Calvert (to be published by Thames & Hudson Ltd on 12 February 2026).
Synopsis
“The first book dedicated to Margaret Calvert, pioneer of design for public service, a groundbreaking typographer and recipient of 2024’s New York Type Directors Club Medal.
Margaret Calvert’s design work on the signs of Britain’s national road network, with Jock Kinneir, means that it is almost impossible to travel anywhere in the UK and not benefit from her skill as a designer. Her ultra-legible typeface and engaging pictograms have become an integral part of everyday British life, and they have set the benchmark for highway signage internationally.
Following a distinguished career as a graphic designer, Margaret Calvert became an influential educator at the Royal College of Art, where she taught a generation of designers, many of whom have achieved global recognition. Today, working in her home studio, she takes on projects that personally inspire her.
This monograph – the first dedicated to her work – captures the full arc of her career, encompassing the three distinct phases of her professional life and offering insight into her early years in South Africa and her formative experiences after moving to the UK as a teenager.”
Buy a copy now
As of 13.01.2026, the hardback edition is available to pre-order for £57 (RRP is £60) via Bookshop.org.