The International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) is the only international authoritative body for typography. ISTD aims to inform and inspire typographers, graphic designers, writers and educators engaged in the field of visual communication. Membership of ISTD denotes not only competence to design, but also acceptance of agreed standards and ethics of working.
 
Founded as the British Typographers Guild in 1928 by compositor Vincent Steer, who was described as an ‘advertising typographer’ as early as 1911, its common bond was a passion for the arrangement of words on paper. Since becoming the professional body, Society of Typographic Designers, now with international reach ISTD never loses sight of its original purpose: ‘to bring together in friendship and mutual help, all those with a love of the printed word’.
 
ISTD gives high priority to supporting graphic communication students and lecturers at many levels. Application for Institutional Membership will be open to colleges and universities from 2007. Membership is also offered to students successfully completing the Society’s Annual Student Assessment Scheme. Initiated in 1977, this scheme now runs in four countries, and brings together members from practice and education to assess the work of potential young members. The growing digital archive of students’ work is a valuable record of contemporary typographic design at college level, which has become an important resource for tutors.
 
International Society of Typographic Designers is a not-for-profit organization, structured as a Company Limited by Guarantee.