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Research community

Our academics, postdoctoral fellows and research assistants, and cohorts of doctoral researchers together create a vibrant research community with diverse perspectives.

Our research is funded by UKRI (Arts and Humanities Research Council), British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, and other UK-based and international organisations.

We enrich and extend our research community through collaborations with universities, museums, industrial partners, professional associations and non-governmental organisations.

Art and design at Reading

The Department of Typography & Graphic Communication and Reading School of Art together form a research division of singular strength with shared values and distinctive domains of excellence.

We embrace research-informed practice and interdisciplinary approaches, we value partnerships and collaboration. We are committed to impactful public service and engagement.

Collections and archives underpin our understanding of the past and the present. We celebrate the future of research through the work of our doctoral and postdoctoral communities.

Research in design

We pursue world-leading research in “design for reading”.

Our research in world scripts, type, and typography contributes to the development of text and language resources for global communities.

We advance public services communication by placing information design research at the core of approaches to making complex information clear.

Our historical research encompasses letterforms and type design across scripts, graphic and information design, and print and printing processes.

Research community

Our academics, postdoctoral fellows and research assistants, and cohorts of doctoral researchers together create a vibrant research community with diverse perspectives.

Our research is funded by UKRI (Arts and Humanities Research Council), British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, and other UK-based and international organisations.

We enrich and extend our research community through collaborations with universities, museums, industrial partners, professional associations and non-governmental organisations.

Interdisciplinary research

Much of our research in information design, world scripts, typographic landscapes, and the history of graphic communication is interdisciplinary.

We are a founding member of the , an interdisciplinary research centre set up to address research challenges that benefit from cross-disciplinary expertise.

CBCP recognises and incorporates our research strengths in the history and practice of printing, publishing, book design and typography, which contribute to its distinctive global, multilingual and multidisciplinary focus.

Collections and archives

Our research is informed by archives and collections, and engagements with design artefacts that define new histories and understandings.

Our renowned underpins research engagement and impact through projects, exhibitions and outreach.

Collections and archives are embedded in the work of our doctoral researchers and play a formative role in their building of new knowledge.

Research projects

Professor Sue Walker and Josefina Bravo are leading this UKRI-funded research project, which began with consideration of instructions for home use Covid-19 tests, and has resulted in guidance for making point-of-use instructions for all kinds of diagnostic tests.

Dr Christopher Burke is exploring many facets of Isotype through a programme of co-authored cross-disciplinary publications including Otto Neurath in Britain and Isotype history and legacy.

Dr Xunchang Cheng’s British Academy fellowship project is a multi-dimensional evaluation of Chinese typeface design from the 1940s to the 1990s. The research focuses on its transformation in the context of technological, cultural and political changes in China.

Writing, talks and engagement

Writing and design

Our researchers share insights into type design, typographic history, and research practice across a range of publications.

  • Borna Izadpanah writes about .
  • Christopher Burke writes about . 
  • Professor Gerry Leonidas writes on .

Lectures and talks

Our reputation for research excellence leads to many invitations to deliver lectures and talks around the world.

Recent examples of talks our academics have given include:

  •  by Eric Kindel, Herb Lubalin Lecture Series.
  •  by Borna Izadpanah, ATypI/Paris.
  •  by Sue Walker, Uppsala Health Summit.

Engagement

Our researchers engage with a global scholarly community, as well as the general public, by organising conferences, symposia, exhibitions, and participatory projects. Examples include:

  • : an open, participatory event series combining talks and workshops on the intersection of research and practice in typography and type design.
  • : “Marie Neurath and Isotype Books for Children” is an online exhibition about the work of Marie Neurath (1898–1986) – a ground-breaking graphic designer who transformed complex information into concise explanations combining words and pictures.