At the Escuela Superior de Diseño de Madrid we consider that vernacular signs, with which the different cultures of the world mark their public spaces, are a valuable cultural heritage, an essential element in the definition and expression of the identity of a place and a key factor in its readability, habitability and enjoyment. However, characteristic city signs are disappearing everywhere at great speed to be replaced by global logos and homogenised signs, often in plastic and of low quality. Traditional styles, crafts, materials and techniques, as well as the traces of collective memory and history are disappearing with these signs.

We believe that it is essential to take measures to protect the richness of this graphic heritage, which can be an important base from which to promote processes of research and creation. And also, that the awareness of the designer’s responsibility in the design, maintenance and quality of common spaces, should be encouraged in Design Schools, so that the new professionals are stakeholders that contribute to make possible the changes that our environment needs.

Since our first project related to typography and public signs, Written Europe, started in 2003, some teachers and students from the school have carried out different projects. And at the moment, we are working on the creation of this new platform on the Internet, Written World, which we hope will be a useful tool for the cataloguing and collective valorisation of this endangered heritage, with the aim of celebrating, promoting and better preserving its diversity. This platform will include an open database of the best signs from around the world, and it will be a shared space for the experimentation and investigation of new meanings, forms and materials for future signs.

This time, we have worked in the Plaza Mayor and its surroundings to respond to the invitation of Madrid City Council, coinciding with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the plaza. We have walked through the streets and identified typography and old signs that we consider distinctive to create the itinerary presented in this guide and invite other people to know and appreciate them. The tour has its digital version in this first prototype of the website of the Written World project, writtenworld.org.

Link to Madrid is my Type: Plaza Mayor

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