SDS Talks and Events

Thursday 25 May 2023 (8am EDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CET / 10pm Melbourne Time) Image of Amphia Hospital, the Netherlands, copyright and via William Moore About the event In 2006, Michèl Verheem founded ID-LAB in Melbourne, Australia. At that time, Read More...

Thursday 20 April 2023 (1pm BST), online via Zoom About the event Over the last two hundred years, we’ve learned an enormous amount about how our fellow creatures – large and small – travel the world.  We now know a great deal Read More...

Thursday 23 March (From 5.pm for 6.15pm GMT tour start time) About the event Our first in-person event of 2023 is a tour of Borough Yards led by f.r.a. Directors Wesley Meyer and Jamie Trippier. Join us beforehand (at a local venue Read More...

Thursday 23 February (12pm GMT / 1pm CET / 2pm EET) About the event 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. MoreInfo specialises Read More...

Thursday 26 January 2023 (6pm GMT start) About the event 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 Read More...

Thursday 15 December 2022 (1pm GMT start) About the event There are only twelve sorts of wayfinding information. Twelve? Is that a lot or a little? On the one hand, it sounds really restrictive to say ‘actually there are only twelve ways Read More...

Thursday 10 November 2022 (12pm GMT start) About the event This talk comes from an inclusive design consultancy perspective and addresses the subject of mind friendly environments. Until relatively recently if you sought guidance, from an inclusive design perceptive, on matters relating Read More...

Thursday 20 October 2022 (1pm BST start) About the event 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 Read More...

Thursday 15 September 2022 (6.15pm for 6.30pm BST start) About the event For this hybrid event (face-to-face and online via Zoom), Tim Fendley talks about how to create a legible city. From the perspective of three interlinking factors: an understanding of people Read More...

Thursday 14 July 2022 (6pm BST) Following on from the Sign Design Society AGM at 5pm About the event Getting lost in buildings and cities has fascinated Dr Colette Jeffrey for many years. From her experience as a designer and a doctoral Read More...

Thursday 30 June 2022 (12.30 BST start) Image of Düsseldorf Airport showing the passenger guidance system designed by Horst & Wicke Design, Kassel, Germany About the event Join us face-to-face (or online) for our lunchtime talk spanning thirty years of signs and Read More...

Thursday 26 May 2022 (12pm BST) About the event Outdoor adventuring should be fun but can be dangerous! Mountain rescue callouts involving people using battery-draining GPS mapping technology have increased, as have the number of inexperienced navigators getting lost in outdoor spaces. Read More...

Thursday 28 April 2022 (6pm BST) About the event Update (27.04.2022) Unfortunately, Tom Pey is no longer able to join us for our seminar on the Waymap app. In his place we welcome Ethan Brooks (Waymap) who will join Julian Jackson. Wayfinding is Read More...

Thursday 24 March 2022 (1pm GMT) About the event 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. When designing for ‘everyone’ Read More...

Thursday 24 February 2022 (6pm GMT) About the event Our talks this month encourage us to travel from the comfort of our homes. Our two speakers Christian Nolle and Mark Ovenden explore influences on airline and railway maps, looking at changing design considerations Read More...

Thursday 10 February 2022   About this event Rescheduled from December 2021, we offer 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 Read More...

Thursday 20 January 2022 (6pm GMT) About the event Can outdoor wayfinding information increase activity and improve user satisfaction? Marco Berends is leading the Future Recreational Network wayfinding project in Denmark and will share experiences of designing new information to encourage outdoor Read More...

As wayfinding designers, we must consider ways to help people with dementia find their way, stay mobile, and remain independent. UEA the Norwich Medical School's Professor Michael Hornberger’s talk explains why the disease affects wayfinding ability and considers possible navigation solutions.

Thursday 25 November 2021 (midday GMT) About the event Internationally renowned natural navigator and wayfinding expert Tristan Gooley talks with SDS co-chair Dr Colette Jeffrey at our November lunchtime event. In an era when we increasingly rely on technology to navigate – Read More...

Please join us to find out how we can design information and environments that will enhance our wellbeing and improve our navigation of place and space.

Thursday 30 September 2021 About this event 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. Join us for this fascinating talk about Danish Read More...

Thursday 8 July 2021 About this event Want to find out what’s happening in Australia’s wayfinding design and research worlds? Join us for two unique early lunchtime talks at 12:00 BST (21:00 AEST) on Thursday 8th July 2021 on Zoom. Mark Janetzki Read More...

Thursday 17 June 2021 About this event Opened on 4 May 1951, the Festival of Britain (FoB) ran successfully for five months across the United Kingdom. It gave visitors a taste of contemporary living and a vision of future innovation. It was Read More...

In a world where we spend so much time staring at things on screens, it is all the more important to be reminded of our physical place in the real world. Craft skills and the objects made by craftspeople offer one such reminder. 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.

Thursday 22 April 2021 About this event Paul Mijksenaar believes that “colour is the richest, most emotional, and most powerful means of visual communication and stretches beyond cultural boundaries; so use it accordingly and don’t spoil it…”  This talk provides a fascinating Read More...

Thursday 25 March 2021 About this event Urban graphic heritage is typically comprised of things such as old signs, old hoardings, and architectural lettering. This talk presents insights from a two-year project ‘Repositioning Graphic Heritage’ looking specifically at urban graphic heritage in Read More...

Thursday 25 February 2021 About this event ‘Max Gill … belongs to a rich chapter in the history of English art and design that is all too often over-looked in our enthusiasm for the rise of the adventurous but clinical modern, which Read More...

Thursday 28 January 2021 About this event Everywhere we go, we encounter implicit and explicit cues to guide us, from environment and behaviour to graphics and manuals. In complex environments, these cues become part of a system that can assist people to Read More...

Thursday 17 December 2020 About this event Join us for our 2020 seasonal soiree. It won’t be our usual in-person festive gathering but no matter, we conclude this year’s series of seminars with a cracker of a virtual celebration. So put on Read More...

Thursday 19 November 2020 About this event A multi-disciplinary approach to wayfinding can result in a wide range of physical and cognitive differences being successfully accommodated with enhanced maintenance and cost efficiencies, with analytics allowing dynamic situations to be predicted, anticipated and Read More...

Thursday, 15 October 2020 About this event While we have all been busy figuring out the endless stream of ’new normals’ brought about by COVID, the climate emergency has not gone away. Indeed, recent circumstances have brought some issues into even sharper Read More...

Thursday 10 September About this event The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything. Its impact has transformed our economy, public and private spaces, and the way we go about our lives individually and collectively. Organisations in every sector, including our own wayfinding Read More...

Thursday 23 July About this event Can designers and cognitive neuroscientists collaborate to design a more navigable world? Join us at the Sign Design Society for a talk by Professor Kate Jeffery (University College London) exploring how cognitive mapping and other spatial Read More...

Thursday 25 June About this event Join us at the Sign Design Society for a talk about wayfinding during the coronavirus lockdown. You can (re) connect with our friendly community, get some business ideas, and see some smiling faces! Sander Baumann, an Read More...

Tuesday 11 February 2020 About this event The mission for February’s talk is to provoke the status quo and encourage new thinking to solve everyday navigation and wayfinding challenges. what3words is a British tech company that has turned how we assign place Read More...

Image copyright and via Hufton+Crow About this event Aptly in the year of Euro 2020, we kick off the new programme of SDS seminars with a talk by Simon Borg on the brief, challenges and inspiration behind Populous Activate‘s commission for the Read More...

Monday 16 December 2019 A celebration of British Sign Awards 2019 wayfinding category finalists About this event Our annual end-of-year seasonal soiree celebrates the best in British wayfinding. Two of the three finalists in the British Sign Awards 2019 wayfinding category will join Read More...

Wednesday 13 November 2019 About this event Our November event features Professor Paul Stirton who will explore the influence and work of ‘Die Neue Typographie’ movement through the lens of typographer Jan Tschichold’s life and work. Paul’s talk comes hot on the Read More...

Wednesday 9 October 2019 About this event Have you ever looked at your surroundings and wondered why so much of it looks the same? Many of the places that surround us were designed by committee with only shareholders in mind. But sometimes Read More...

Thursday 11 July 2019 Blurring the lines of art, signage and placemaking About this event Wayfinding is often equated with signs. But as any experienced consultant will soon tell you, signs are one among several options in the wayfinder’s toolbox. The architectural Read More...

Thursday 6 June 2019 Jamaican street signs, reinventing neighbourhoods and an interactive wayfinding/waylosing workshop About this event For June’s SDS talk we’re going on tour, heading up to Birmingham to the Birmingham Design Festival. We’re giving members an opportunity to enjoy a Read More...

Thursday 9 May 2019 Image credited to Eva-Maria Griesbauer About this event For our May talk we will be exploring how the findings from research investigating how London taxi drivers acquire and use ‘The Knowledge” can inform or explain principles in wayfinding Read More...

Wednesday 24 April 2019 About this event For our April event, join us to hear an expert panel discuss the length and breadth of what we, as wayfinding professionals, need to do to ensure that our work is as inclusive, accessible and Read More...

Thursday 28 March 2019 About this event For our March talk and spring party, we’re pleased to welcome Despina Macris from Dotdash. Drawing on a thirty year history, she will share some of the studio’s most memorable and successful projects with a Read More...

Thursday 7 February 2019 Find out more about Wayfindr, the social technology organisation, and their mission to empower visually impaired people through inclusive and accessible audio navigation.

Thursday 10 January 2019 A celebration of British Sign Awards 2018 wayfinding category finalists      Images credited to CCD Design & Ergonomics (Simon Kennedy), Maynard and Placemarque We’re kicking off the New Year in style – celebrating the best in British Read More...

Monday 17 December 2018 Sign Design Society and Information Design Association party & talkFest Lettering and signs are an essential part of our visual experience and urban landscape. We’re surrounded by them. Some point the way or tell us where we are; Read More...

Thursday 11th October 2018   About this event In a world driven by the availability of big data, clients increasingly expect evidence to underpin design choices as well as investment decisions. But design deals a lot in things that have always seemed Read More...

Thursday 13th September 2018 About this event Disney Studios will tell you that wayfinding began with the Polynesian community 3,000 years ago and hasn’t changed much since then. At SDS however, we beg to differ. On the 13th of September, we will host Read More...

Thursday 12th July 2018 Read More...

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 and a short city signage tour.

This seminar will feature two presentations, by PhD students Peter B Lloyd and Andrew McIlwraith, who will be talking about how design impacts on the usability of maps and plans.

Thursday 19 April 2018 During this talk there will be two presentations. Ed Griffith (accompanied by James Sirmin, Papercast client) will present an overview of Jedco Product Design, different digital display technologies and applications, with specific reference to the Papercast Digital Bus Stop project which uses E-Paper technology. Paul Cook will argue that the design is just as important as well as the instruction message in digital solutions.

Wednesday 28 March 2018 During this talk Laura Kidd, Head of Architecture, will present the HS2 vision and the impact that this has on design thinking. She will outline the design approach for stations and discuss the station common design elements and wayfinding and signage requirements.

Thursday 22 February 2018 Steer Davies Gleave were contracted by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to develop a dedicated connectivity and wayfinding strategy for Brick Lane to capture and spread the footfall along the entire street. During this talk they discuss their strategy to turn Brick Lane into a key pedestrian north-south route, linking all the attractions in the area and reinforcing the street's competitiveness.

Thursday 25 January 2018  The SDS New Year Party Come and join the party and hear from the winning entries in the 2017 British Sign Awards. We celebrate the best in class in wayfinding with presentations from two of the shortlisted projects Read More...

Thursday 23 November 2017  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 Read More...

Wednesday 6 September 2017 In a departure from our usual format, September will see the first SDS Big debate. With the help of a multidisciplinary panel we’ll be addressing the role of wayfinding consultancy within the built environment.

Wednesday 6 September 2017 In a departure from our usual format, September will see the first SDS Big debate. With the help of a multidisciplinary panel we’ll be addressing the role of wayfinding consultancy within the built environment. We’ll be exploring whether it’s really needed, why it’s needed and perhaps touch upon what the future holds for those practicing the art Read More...

Thursday 11 May 2017 Man drawing mind map of experiential design ideas Innovation is driving the heart of our future economies. As we push for greater innovation the need to collaborate across widely different specialisms has become a requirement to gain more and more innovative solutions. The question is HOW? How do we enable professionals who have long been separate, or even incompatible, and ask them to produce something new and innova Read More...

Tuesday 4 April 2017 Type designer David Quay is fascinated by urban typography and how cities use typefaces to express their individual identities. Describing himself as a ‘Type Tourist’, David has visited and extensively photographed the type styles that characterise many cities Read More...

Thursday 16th March 2017 Spaces where vehicles and pedestrians interact and interchange is no more felt than at a busy and bustling industrial estate or business park. In this talk, Jonathan Docksey from wayfinding agency Design JD will explore the different needs of pedestrians and vehicles on industrial estates. He will also explain how the agency engages with users to ensure success. Read More...