The Ligatures Summer School is an event that aims to bring together students, researchers, and professionals to explore and celebrate the visual and cultural materializations of written and typographic letterforms. Hosted by the University of Porto in collaboration with partner institutions —IPCA and ESMAD—, the event is to be held every summer, on an annual basis and features a series of talks, workshops, and discussions exploring the intersection of writing, typography, design, and culture in historical, practical and speculative design applications.

After a trial edition (2024) This year's Summer School is a two-day immersive program featuring a keynote speaker , presentations from junior researchers (resulting from a call for participation) and roundtable discussions with the participation of senior researchers. The program also includes a day dedicated to a hands-on workshop, preceding the main event, focused on exploring techniques and approaches for integrating computational design into the practices of recovering, interpreting, and promoting cultural design heritage.

Call for Submissions

Submission Deadline: June 12, 2025
Submission Platform: Microsoft CMT platform
Presentation Language: English
Notice of acceptance: 27 June, 2025
Submission of final presentation slides: 14 July, 2025

Venue:
Foundation Marques da Silva, Porto, Portugal and Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto

We invite master's students, PhD candidates, and recent graduates to submit presentation proposals for the Ligatures Summer School 2025, organized by the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and hosted at the iconic Foundation Marques da Silva at the laboratory extension in Porto.

Ligatures is a research and education initiative that explores the intersections of writing, calligraphy, typography, and written/printed language as cultural expressions.

Submissions

We welcome oral presentation proposals (5 mins + Q&A) addressing (but not limited to) Historical, Conceptual, or Applied research, Case studies, Design artifacts, or other original research topics and applications aligned with the Ligatures mission & research topics.

Format

Submissions should follow a visual exposition format, in English, containing from 600 to 750 words, clearly outlining the research context:

Goals and objectives

Problematic/theoretical framework

Literature review and/or State-of-the-Art analysis

Methodology

Contribution to the Summer School and the academic community

Use the official template for the submission. It will then follow a double-blind peer review.

Selection Criteria

Relevance and Originality of contribution(s) within the SIG main Research Topics and Action Lines to the Academic Community and Society;

Appropriateness and Clarity of the methods described;

Quality of the Presentation and Results.

Acknowledgment

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Presentations

Selected participants must structure their presentation in a 15-slide deck, auto-temporized, with 20 seconds each. Using images, graphics, text, videos, or animations. Each slide 20 seconds for a total of 5 minutes.

Make sure to convert your designs into images/outlines to avoid font compatibility issues. Consider using the following PowerPoint template (comming soon).

If approved, send your presentation via email to , until Monday 14 July.

Who Should Apply?

This call is mainly geared toward students and researchers in Graphic Design, but we also encourage proposals from fields such as Literature and Book Studies, Digital Humanities, Artistic Practice and Research, Education and Computation , as long as they reflect on human-written, typed, or printed language forms and their implications within society and culture.

Key Details

Deadline: June 12, 2025
Presentation Format: Oral (5 min + 5 min Q&A) with support from presentation slides
Language: English
Submission Platform: Microsoft CMT
Registration Platform: Eventbrite (links to be announced soon)
Conference Fees: The main conference has no participation fees. Attendance is free but requires registration.
Workshop Fees: A symbolic fee may be required for the workshop participants (details to be announced soon).

Why Participate?

Even if you are not planning on submitting a presentation, come and join a vibrant international community of young and senior researchers. Through lectures, presentations, and practical workshops, you'll gain:

Critical feedback and academic mentorship
Publication opportunities in post-event proceedings
A certificate of participation or attendance
New perspectives on interdisciplinary design and cultural expression

Reach out to us at or visit https://ligatures.fba.up.pt for more details and subscribe to our mailing list. Let’s connect through language, design, and discuss design legacies in an open, accessible, and inclusive contemporary setting.

Program (provisional)

The provisional program includes one day dedicated to hands-on workshops. And a second day dedicated to presentations and discussions.

Day one (17 July) Workshop(s)
Explore the different materializations of written and typographic letterforms with a lead instructor. Details about the program, fees and registration soon.

Day two: Morning (18 July) Presentations
Presentations from junior researchers (resulting from a call for participation - more details soon)
Keynote Speaker: (T.B.C. more details soon)
Attendance for this event is free, but registration is mandatory (more details soon)

Day two: Afternoon (18 July) Round table discussions
Join the morning presenters and the senior researchers in a round table discussion focused on exploring techniques and approaches for integrating computational design into the practices of recovering, interpreting, and promoting cultural design heritage.
Attendance for this event is free, but registration is mandatory (more details soon)