Talks and events

This talk by Mike Zender focussed on the sorts of icons (aka pictograms) which you can understand without training or using language.

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

This talk by Andrew Barker explores architectural wayfinding cues: the sorts of ways in which the built environment supports us as we navigate. From the obvious: ‘you can’t go that way, there’s a wall in the way, but you can go this way because there’s a door here’, to the less straightforward – but you’ll have to join the talk to find out what they are. Along the way we’ll explore questions such as when radiused corners are preferable to right-angle corners. And we’ll also consider designing wayfinding information so that it is supported by and works alongside architectural wayfinding cues.

So after nearly 50 years of combined experience we are sharing our joy, wisdom and insight for this place making puzzle by writing a book about it. In our book, we’ve broken down the mechanics of wayfinding strategy, from theory to design and from physical to digital. We are not so presumptuous as to think that ours is the only way to design wayfinding schemes, it’s what we’ve learnt and what has worked for us over the years . . . and it really is straight forward.

Join us for this crash course seminar in sustainable signage illumination, with Applelec’s Lauren Flint. Lauren goes back to basics: dispelling myths, busting the jargon and explaining the key features you need to look for in your illumination solution and what that means for your signage/wayfinding designs, as well as for the end user. By the end of this session, Lauren hopes to have given you the confidence to identify the right solutions and talk to your customers about the sustainable benefits of your products.

This talk, by Alastair Somerville of Acuity Design, used examples from projects for Imperial War Museum, English Heritage, National Trust, and Transport for Manchester to show how a sequence of wayfinding materials that pay attention to the active interaction of an individual’s capacities in relation to the organisation’s capabilities can help people to find their […]

You are invited to an exciting, in-person symposium, organised by SDS and SEGD London, with six expert speakers: Veronika Eggar, Simon Kinneir, Liam Proudlock, Rachel Smalley, Neil Smith, Rosie Smith and Alexandra Verdeil.

14 March 2024 (1pm GMT) Nourhan Bassam, author of recently published ‘The Gendered City‘, delved into the challenges faced by women and marginalised groups in urban environments, and explored the need for inclusive and gender-sensitive urban design. She presented a range of viewpoints on understanding and addressing the experiences and perspectives of women in cities, […]

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

In this talk, Urgent.Agency’s Michaela Pihl Olsen and Rose Marie Zeynoun spotlight two aspects that often shape our understanding of way finding and inclusive design. Firstly, they delve into the perception gap surrounding wayfinding: how it is commonly perceived versus what it actually entails. Secondly, they shine a light on a common misconception among designers, exploring how inclusive design is sometimes as a burden rather than a creative opportunity.

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

Join us online via Zoom at 1pm GMT on Thursday 16 November ’23 to hear wayfinding designer Jaap Knevel share insights from his Master’s thesis, ‘There must be other ways’ which concluded a two year artistic research project at the Department of Visual Communication at Konstfack University in Stockholm, Sweden. Jaap discusses the lessons learned from engaging with different groups who challenge the norms of wayfinding design, shares the personal experiences that led him to question his creative preconceptions, and reflects on a series of experimental maps, signs, and pictograms he created as a reaction.

Join us online or in person on the evening of 19 October for our autumn party. We have talks by Doug Rose and Sean Brereton, an informal celebration of the contributions made to the work of the Sign Design Society by three former Steering Group members. and the launch of the new edition of the Sign Design Guide.

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

Our speakers Sander Baumann (/designworkplan) and Robin Howie (Fieldwork Facility) join us to share their varied and innovative approaches to using sustainable design in their placemaking and wayfinding work.

In 2006, Michèl Verheem founded ID-LAB in Melbourne, Australia. At that time, designers in Australia were creating sign systems that looked good but didn’t always function as well as hoped, and the term “wayfinding” wasn’t that widely used.

David Barrie describes some of the key navigational mechanisms animals use, including path integration, the use of the sun, moon and stars, the sense of smell, as well as the earth’s magnetic field.

Join us at Franco Manca London Bridge from 5pm for an informal catch-up over a beer and maybe something to eat. With the twilight tour of the Borough Yards development starting at 6.15pm GMT.

On the eve of the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, we welcome Katya Kadurina from Studio MoreInfo to share a uniquely Ukrainian perspective on wayfinding design.

As women, girls, and gender diverse people, the public spaces of the city are not designed for us. They do not reflect our needs. We must adapt to them. This is the case all around the world. As we move through urban spaces, we are often filled with fear rather than confidence. Concerns for our […]

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

Attendees can expect to learn about what some might regard as basics such as tonal contrast, but also about more advanced subjects such as sensory processing, sensory noise, sensory overload, and the significance of context to memory. The relevance and paradoxes of choice and permission also feature in the talk.

How do you make visiting the National Museum, Norway about more than just viewing Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’? This was a key question asked by the client team for the new National Museum, and one that Endpoint were tasked to address and solve.

For this hybrid event, Tim Fendley talks about how to create a legible city. From the perspective of three interlinking factors: an understanding of people and their emotions; institutions and how they behave; and the capability of technology.

From her experience as a designer and a doctoral researcher, Colette explains the different ways people navigate, six key influences that cause waylosing and how designers can help create inclusive, navigable environments.

Heike Nehl and Sibylle Schlaich from Moniteurs explore the unique identities and wayfinding systems at over a hundred airports, sharing past stories, current challenges and promising future trends for navigating airports around the world. 

Professor Terry talk shares his experiences of outdoor navigation for adventure activities. He introduces a new group he has set up and chairs, the Outdoor Adventure Navigation Special Interest Group within the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN).

There are two key means to help people with vision impairments to find their way through the built environment. The first is by making structural alterations to the build environment so that it better meets their particular needs. The second is by creating technology to assist people with vision impairments, providing them with the information that they are unable to access due to their limited sight. In this talk we’ll be focussing on the second of these: assistive technologies to help wayfinding for vision impaired people.

Danish graphic designer Janik Frithioff shares fascinating examples of functional design solutions, and explores the key principles for designing wayfinding, traffic information, typography and visual communications for public places.

Christian Nolle and Mark Ovenden explore influences on airline and railway maps, looking at changing design considerations and the evolution of travel information design.

A unique opportunity to find out more about the life and design legacy of Abram Games through a visit to his archive in West Hampstead, London. The afternoon (2 pm) tour given by Naomi Games, daughter of the acclaimed 20th Century graphic designer.

Can outdoor wayfinding information increase activity and improve user satisfaction?

Professor Michael Hornberger explains current research on spatial orientation and navigation deficits in people with Alzheimer’s disease, and how wayfinding problems impact people’s outdoor activities, such as driving and walking safely.

In an era when we increasingly rely on technology to navigate – and get lost when it fails – Tristan Gooley’s fascinating knowledge of navigation using natural cues and signs gives us ideas to incorporate into wayfinding system design and help us find our way on our walks.

Our October event takes two different perspectives on how people respond to space, interact with it and move through it, and how wayfinding success or failure can impact our wellbeing.

Denmark-based Urgent.Agency explain their approach to wayfinding and place activation at the Designmuseum Copenhagen and share ideas on how typography has evolved in response to wayfinding needs.

Mark Janetzki shares wayfinding work from the Diadem design studio in Melbourne. Dr Andrew Haig gives an overview of his doctoral research into how we build spatial knowledge, why using paper maps is good for us, and what his research revealed about using landmarks with mobile maps to improve pedestrian navigation.

On the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, Naomi Games gives an illustrated talk about her father Abram Games’s emblem design for the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Pip Hall and Erik Spiekermann both work with letters that are physical objects in the real world. Pip works cutting letters in stone, and Erik is currently involved in letterpress printing. Both will be telling us about their work.

The focus of this event is on colour and its role in the process of navigation, whilst acknowledging that it is just one element of wayfinding systems; others being typography, sign layout, and visual and textual information.

This talk presents insights from a two-year project ‘Repositioning Graphic Heritage’ looking specifically at urban graphic heritage in its setting. It explores the relationship between graphic heritage and heritage interpretation, between presentation and representation, through case studies of a multitude of ‘signs’ in their urban settings.

Caroline Walker, great-niece of MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill and author of MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life  (Unicorn Publishing, 2020) celebrates the artistic legacy of this versatile and multi-talented artist, architect, draughtsman, letterer, mural-painter, and standout mapmaker.

Acclaimed wayfinding designer and theorist, David Gibson reflects on what he has learned since publishing ‘The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places’ (Princeton University Press) in 2009, and why it’s now time for a new edition.

The design of our environment has the power to enable or disable all of us. How intuitively we’re able to navigate that environment impacts all aspects of our lives: how we live, work, and play. For people who are vision impaired, there is yet to be a fully integrated, intuitive solution that enables independent navigation and wayfinding. Many technological innovations entering this space focus heavily on technology, rather than considering the user experience and neuropsychology of how visual information can be perceived through other senses.

oin us to hear specialists from Buro Happold’s Inclusive Design, People Movement and Smart Buildings teams — Jean Hewitt, Elle Beange, and Becky Hayward — who will be exploring in turn: the diversity of humans in the way places are navigated; and the use of analytics to solve complex wayfinding challenges.

This event explores how ‘green thinking’ can be applied to wayfinding design and manufacturing processes and the lifecycle of products. The evening’s speakers include Erik Sørensen Ruiz from Modulex providing insights into the company’s approach. We will also hear from Adele Orcajada from MaterialDriven about ‘future proofing’ and the types of materials and innovation that can provide the toolkit for better and more environmentally sustainable architecture, urban environments, wayfinding, and smarter products. Nick Hughes from UCL will introduce two important framing concepts, ‘the circular economy’ and resource management hierarchy, for understanding resource efficiency. 

Join us for a discussion with SEGD’s CEO, Cybelle Jones, who will discuss ideas on embracing the future rather than fearing it as our global call-to-action, and employing experiential communication design thinking as a means to solving small and large-scale problems. 

Join us at the Sign Design Society for a talk by Professor Kate Jeffery (University College London) exploring how cognitive mapping and other spatial processes underpin wayfinding in both humans and animals.

Sander Baumann, an Amsterdam-based designer will share his experiences of wayfinding and sign design during lockdown, how his business changed overnight and how he found new opportunities to keep moving on.

The mission for February’s talk is to provoke the status quo and encourage new thinking to solve everyday navigation and wayfinding challenges.

Simon Borg examines how the practice’s cross-disciplinary design approach informed the development of authentic and long-lasting experiential spaces at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium London.

Two of the three finalists in the British Sign Awards 2019 wayfinding category will join us to talk through the brief, challenges and inspiration behind their winning commissions.

Professor Paul Stirton explores the influence and work of ‘Die Neue Typographie’ movement through the lens of typographer Jan Tschichold’s life and work.

Simon Yewdall, Lead Strategist at dn&co. talks about place branding, what it is, and why it is needed. He will share some insights into dn&co.’s work for Digbeth in Birmingham, the Royal Docks in London and St James’s.

We celebrate the role that art and light play with two speakers at the forefront of their fields, Paul Arad (Acrylicize) and Jason Bruges (Jason Bruges Studio).

An opportunity to enjoy a full afternoon / evening of design related activities to inspire and challenge. The SDS itinerary takes in two free Birmingham Design Festival talks and a unique Sign Design Society workshop, all hosted by Birmingham City University.

We explore how the findings from research investigating how London taxi drivers acquire and use ‘The Knowledge” can inform or explain principles in wayfinding design.

An expert panel discusses the length and breadth of what we, as wayfinding professionals, need to do to ensure that our work is as inclusive, accessible and disability-smart as possible.

Despina Macris shares some of the studio’s most memorable and successful projects with a focus on the contextual approach Dotdash takes working across 10 different sectors: transport; healthcare; urban precincts & public realm; education & research; major events; parklands & open spaces; cultural, civic & sport; corporate, commercial and residential.

Tiernan Kenny’s talk will focus on wayfinding for persons with vision impairment. Specifically the use of audio navigation technology, an augmented reality wayfinding solution, which can allow vision-impaired people to travel independently by providing step-by-step route guidance.

All three finalists from the British Sign Awards 2018 wayfinding category (Maynard, CCD Design & Ergonomics, and Placemarque) join us to talk through the brief, challenges and inspiration behind their winning projects

An evening celebrating all kinds of public lettering and typography. We are very pleased to partner with the Information Design Association (IDA) for this event, and delighted to have three special guest speakers: Phil Baines, Alistair Hall and Geraldine Marshall.

Andrew Barker, drawing on case studies, academic research, and best practice from other disciplines, discusses a range of approaches and techniques suited to measuring the effectiveness of design solutions in wayfinding projects.

A debate with a panel of industry professionals from different sectors to argue whether i) the role of specialist wayfinding consultant is still relevant in a world, where we have access to turn-by-turn guidance on smart phones and ii) the added value that such consultants bring and whether it justifies the expense.

DCL (Design Communications Ltd.) showcase how new and emerging display technologies can be integrated into the built environment to communicate brand or create unforgettable experiences.

The SDS on Tour in Birmingham event promises a mix of academic and practice-based talks, a graphic design exhibition, Birmingham City University architecture and graphic communication graduate degree shows, graduate recruitment opportunities and a short city signage tour.

Two talks cover the latest university research on the usability of maps and plans. Peter B Lloyd,  from the University of Kent, talks through the results of his study on the New York City Subway Map, and in particular the impact of colour coding when it comes to navigation. By contrast and focussing on the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, Andrew McIlwraith, from the University of Reading, discusses the effectiveness of different design approaches in the design of museum guides.

Advances in display technology are enabling wayfinding and customer information signs to be updated dynamically in response to changing circumstances without compromising on the visual quality. At the same time, the robustness has improved along with the affordability, so that investing in digital screens to communicate even relatively static information is no longer out of the question.

During this talk Laura Kidd, Head of Architecture, presents the HS2 vision and the impact that this has on design thinking. She outlines the design approach for stations and discuss the station common design elements and wayfinding and signage requirements.

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

This content is limited for members only Within our member-only pages we provide a wide range of useful information resources including: Recordings of our talks Presentations Academic research papers Case studies Guidance on standards and good practice Project opportunities Join the SDS today to access our priviliged member-only information. SDS members and other registered site users: to choose, […]

Sign design often involves integrating/extending a client’s brand and identity. Consistency of information and design is also at the heart of reliable wayfinding systems. But what about after installation? How do we ensure our clients appreciate the need for brand conformity and overall consistency for new and updated signs? To expand on this topic are three special guest speakers: Mark Ovenden, Tim Dunn and Ann Gavaghan.

our event provides you with further insight and a greater understanding of how best to design wayfinding and signing solutions to better meet the needs of this growing segment. It will also provide you with some tools to assist you in delivering more inclusive solutions.

With the help of a multidisciplinary panel we address the role of wayfinding consultancy within the built environment. We explore whether it’s really needed, why it’s needed and perhaps touch upon what the future holds for those practicing the art.

Wesley Meyer shares trends, personal insights and practical advice on HOW to enable collaboration for innovation. The talk covers better understanding other designers (and stakeholders), unlocking the hidden value in your design process, dispelling some misconceptions about innovation and how to have more effective and collaborative meetings.

David Quay discusses his work on a recent custom wayfinding typeface project for Bath: the Bath City typeface. The typeface required extensive documentation of the city’s lettering.

Jonathan Docksey (Design JD) explores the different needs of pedestrians and vehicles on industrial estates. He also explains how the agency engages with users to ensure success.