Syntagma is the trading name of our partnership. We're husband and wife, and we started the business together in 1982. Over the years we've worked individually and together on many different projects, from designing small reference cards through to providing complete documentation teams and producing large sets of technical manuals. Whatever the job, we share a deep commitment to making information accessible, and an enthusiasm for the ever-evolving ways of doing it.

Margaret Aldis is the publication architect and provides consultancy and project management services. She also designs, writes and edits documents, including online Help and Web content, using a variety of documentation standards, tools and formats.

Martyn Aldis provides our publishing support services, including editing, writing, illustration and document conversions. He is responsible for most of the typographical and visual design within the partnership.

When we need additional resources on a project we normally work with other freelance authors, artists and web developers. We've an excellent network of contacts and can put together a team to suit the job.

Why the name?

People often ask where we got our name from - the answer is "the dictionary"! According to Chambers, Syntagma is "a systematic body, system, or group", deriving from the Greek words for together and to put in order. The term is also used for a language construction or syntactic unit. When looking for a name to capture and emphasize the importance we place on structure and organization in information design, we liked the connotations.

We're told a syntagma was also the smallest fighting unit in the ancient Greek army. We rather like the connotations of this too.