{"id":188,"date":"2026-06-08T19:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:54:02","slug":"about-ligatures-new","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/about-ligatures-new\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Ligatures SIG"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"alignwide has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The term \u201cligatures\u201d refers to special characters in calligraphy and typography, where different forms come together to create a unique element. This symbolizes our aim to connect cultural, political, technological, and health challenges and opportunities through a design-based approach. By examining the design of various written forms, calligraphy, and typography across different cultures and technologies, we aim to reveal the rich fabric of human expression through language as an artistic or design process.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Johanna Drucker (2022), typography and visual language are tools that shape\u2014and are shaped by\u2014our communication. They allow us to capture and interpret various cultural and historical moments. Therefore, exploring letterforms and their evolution over time enables us to investigate and promote social changes by reflecting and shaping these through visual language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mission and Action Lines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"alignwide wp-block-paragraph\">The main mission of Ligatures is to promote and preserve cultural heritage while driving innovation in Design. To achieve this, we aim to foster intergenerational and intercultural networks and advocate for a comprehensive education through inclusion and discursive practices that reflect and engage with social and cultural realities.To fulfill this mission, our key lines of action include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Promoting cultural and heritage preservation<\/strong>: Inspired by Drucker, we see letterforms\u2014both graphic and typographic\u2014as cultural memory. Preserving them helps keep societal narratives alive.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fostering intergenerational and intercultural networks<\/strong>: Aiming to bridge generational and cultural gaps, we promote knowledge exchanges through design. We will organize an annual activity in the format of a Young + Senior Researcher Summer School, featuring industry guests and engaging students, researchers, and community professionals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Promoting equality and inclusion celebrating diversity<\/strong>: We actively commit to defending equity and celebrating cultural diversity in all its forms, acknowledging the value of different voices in knowledge-building. We seek to embrace expressions and visualizations of non-Latin alphabets (such as Cyrillic, Arabic, Tamil, Devanagari, CJK, etc.) through active collaboration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drive innovation and innovative solutions<\/strong>. Wether in practice or in education contexts, we aim to promote and support innovation in design through an interdisciplinary approach, exploring past, current and future methods, tools and techniques.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Supporting secure, healthy, and fulfilling lives in a changing society.<\/strong> We view design as a social and ethical practice with a strong potential to foster well-being and health in evolving contexts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our research topics include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Historical Research:<\/strong> Exploring the history of Graphic Design and the various forms of Type or Writing related fields. Including the context of known or influential authors and designers. Or lesser-known figures, their communities, and legacies. Studying past styles or techniques to understand their impact on contemporary creations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Technological Research:<\/strong> Investigating traditional tools and processes like writing, graffiti, calligraphy, wood and lead type, typewriters, letterpress printing, photo lettering and other electronic or digital systems. Exploring how these can integrate into modern hybrid design approaches.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Contemporary Letterforms Design:<\/strong> Analyzing the state of the art in digital font design, writing and production tools, aesthetics, and functionality. Extending Latin writing to multi-script systems, pushing the boundaries of contemporary typography.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Speculative Design and Future-Oriented Education:<\/strong> Exploring the latest advances in parametric, dynamic, and\/or generative systems, including Artificial Intelligence. Comprehend current teaching and learning paradigms to envision the future of letterforms design, its practice, its education and its societal implications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Main Initiatives and Expected Outcome<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ligatures regular activity plan includes the aim to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Organize conferences, workshops or master classes regularly throughout the year (see the events section)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Organize an annual summer school. Ligatures&#8217; Summer School format may include keynote speakers, Workshops and\/or Communications. The format will vary accordingly to the SIG&#8217;s activity plan. Feel free to contact us with proposals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Establish partnerships with national and international entities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support members and students&#8217; research and development of academic and seed projects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"alignwide has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Ligatures Special Interest Group (SIG) is composed of a diverse team of academic and research professionals. Members include associate and assistant professors, as well as researchers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/i2ads.up.pt\/\">i2ADS research unit<\/a> at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fa5e4718 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/members\/\">See Member&#8217;s Details<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team also features coordinators and adjunct professors from the <a href=\"https:\/\/idmais.org\/\">ID+ research unit<\/a>, representing partner institutions. In addition to this academic leadership, the SIG actively collaborates with bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s students from the design programs at FBAUP, the Polytechnic Institute of C\u00e1vado and Ave (IPCA), and the School of Media Arts and Design (ESMAD), the ESAD Matosinhos Design Faculty (and the respective esad\u2014idea research unit)  and the Communication and Art Department of the university of Aveiro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u201cligatures\u201d refers to special characters in calligraphy and typography, where different forms come together to create a unique element. This symbolizes our aim to connect cultural,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-188","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ligatures.fba.up.pt\/sig\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}