2024 has been another busy and eventful year for the Sign Design Society.
In our events and newsletters, we heard a variety of perspectives taking the design of wayfinding information in all sorts of directions. As ever, we heard from a number of design practitioners discussing their work, we heard from Urgent.Agency, Alastair Somerville, DNCO, and PassageWay. We heard about a key element in the history of our practice from Mark Ovenden, tracking the influence of the London Underground map across other transport systems around the world. We heard about the connection between theory and practice, in terms of symbol from Mike Zender and in terms of architectural wayfinding cues from myself. DNCO and Eva Nicholson talked about placemaking and non-places. Applelec presented an insight into sustainable materials and technologies. And Nourhan Bassam and Alastair Somerville talked about aspects of access and inclusion.
Which brings me on to a highlight of the year. This was the symposium that we held in April on the theme of design for inclusive wayfinding information. We organised the event in collaboration with SEGD and it was great to work closely with them on this. We had an excellent lineup of speakers (in alphabetical order) were: Veronika Eggar, Simon Kinneir, Liam Proudlock, Rachel Smalley, Neil Smith, Rosie Smith, and Alexandra Verdeil. They addressed inclusion from the point of view of both access specialists and design specialists, presenting practical and conceptual work in the domain. A key element in the planning of the symposium was the decision to make it entirely in-person. It was great to see so many people make it into central London to participate. It was a packed afternoon, but all went very well, and the short breaks between speakers were filled with discussion. And the dedicated social and networking time at the end of the day was so well attended that the pub we had reserved some space in complained that too many people had turned up
We plan to host a symposium again in 2025, details will follow soon!
The symposium was planned to celebrate another major milestone – namely the publication of the new edition of the Sign Design Guide. We have named the new edition as the Sign Design Guide +, to signal the increased quantity of information contained. The first print run of the guide sold out within months, and we are already making substantial inroads into the first reprint. The project to release a digital edition is ongoing.
We have continued to publish our newsletters. We aim for them to be monthly but sometimes we don’t quite make it as other demands have to take priority (such as sudden changes to speaker programme). We hope you continue to find them useful and interesting.
If you know of someone who would make an interesting speaker for one of our events, or an article that it would be worth republishing in the newsletter, then please let us know (put yourself forward, don’t be shy!). We are always keen to find new voices and perspectives, and fresh ideas that shake up our thinking are definitely welcome.
Best wishes for 2025. Enjoy!