Time is flying so fast. I feel like I am barely back from John Davey's terrific Reasons to be Creative in Brighton, and already TYPO London is approaching fast. In three weeks Logan Hall of the University of London will be the creative heart of London, Great Britain, and beyond. Together with TYPO San Francisco, TYPO London was one of the two new legs of the TYPO International Design Conferences that experienced their first edition in the last academic year. This year's TYPO London revolves around the theme of "Social".

Dalton Maag presentation in Jefferey Hall at TYPO London 2011: Places.

This is a significant moment for the profession of design.

For the first time since the 1960s, human centred design is high on the agenda: issues such as accessibility, inclusion and mobility are once more taking centre stage. And as society looks for solutions to social problems of all kinds, it is to design – and designers – that it increasingly turns.

TYPO London 2012: Social provides a unique opportunity to investigate the myriad ways in which designers can function socially. And by 'functioning socially' we don't just mean in the socio-political sense: thanks to huge changes in the nature of media, the act of designing is, more than ever, a social act, whether it is working for a global brand or designing a new eco-friendly typeface.

There is no single path; there are many. But we can be sure of one thing: the socially minded designer is the designer best equipped to deal with the changes that we all face as a culture.

Gawking at Dale Herigstad's three-dimensional interface for 'new television' (mixed media) at TYPO London 2011: Places. Photo by Ben Mitchell

Yesterday the TYPO London organisation announced the main schedule was completed with final speaker confirmations from some big names: Paula Scher, Irma Boom and Ken Garland. While for me personally the inaugural edition was mostly a "best of" of the previous years of TYPO Berlin (which made perfect sense), this year the speakers' line-up has many new faces. I am looking forward to seeing and maybe even meeting a couple of speakers. Sara De Bondt is a Belgian graphic designer (and editor and publisher) who has been living and working in London for years now and whom I share at least one friend with: Jo De Baerdemaker. Vaughan Oliver is a graphic design hero of mine from my academy days, for his iconic work for the music industry and his amazing typographic sensibility.

Calligraphy workshop with Andreas Frohloff at TYPO London 2011: Places

There are also a number of unknown names who I am eager to learn more from. To get acquainted with them and help us map out our conference schedule the TYPO London Blog publishes a new series of Four (or so) Questions To… interviews with selected speakers. And if you're still hesitating, here's 7 reasons for attending TYPO London.

FontFont stand at TYPO London 2011: Places

Registration is now open at typotalks.com/london, and attendees from all over Europe are signing up. Don't procrastinate if you want to get your own ticket for TYPO London. As always TYPO offers opportunities to attend the conference at a reduced price, or even for free.

Get a25% discounton your ticket if you use promo code:T12-Limitedthrough Sunday, September 30.Go to the ticket lottery website and login to MyTYPO. Sort your thoughts, create a pie chart, add percentages and colours and submit. Each week the random generator draws two entries to each win one ticket for TYPO London 2012.

Header image:TYPO London 2011: Places facilitators Simone Wolf and Adrian Shaughnessy in Logan Hall. Photo by FontFont