The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization and now part of The One Club for Creativity, has opened the call for entries and announced diverse juries for its two premiere global awards programs: TDC67 Communication Design and 24TDC Typeface Design competitions.
TDC67, now in its 67th year, is all about how letterforms are used, recognizing typographic excellence and innovation along with the art and craft of typography and design. 24TDC, in its 24th year, focuses on how letterforms are drawn, and celebrates new typeface designs in all global languages. Both competitions have professional and student categories, and receive entries from more than 60 countries.
To be eligible, work must have been produced or published in the 2020 calendar year. Early bird deadline for entry is November 20, 2020, with final deadline January 8, 2021. More details on both competitions can be found on the entry site.
This year’s awards competitions reflect TDC’s commitment to ensure diversity within its juries and Board. Judges for this year’s competitions are as follows.
Chair: Juan Carlos Pagan, founding partner, executive creative director, Sunday Afternoon, New York
- Marta Cerda Alimbau, designer, typographer, Barcelona
- Leandro Assis, artist, art director, Lebassis, Rio de Janeiro
- Melissa Deckert, cofounder, Party of One Studio, Brooklyn
- Joyce N. Ho, motion designer, New York
- Leland Maschmeyer, chief creative officer, Chobani, New York
- Jason Ramirez, designer, art director, Penguin Publishing Group, New York
- Jason Sfetko, senior designer, Nike, Portland
Chair: Ksenya Samarsakya, strategic consultant, creative director, Samarskaya & Partners, Lisbon
- Agyei Archer, designer, art director, Agyei Design, Woodbrook (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Peter Bil’ak, cofounder, Typotheque, The Hague
- Nadine Chahine, principal, ArabicType Ltd., London
- Sandra Garcia, cofounder, designer, art director, Tipas Type, Mexico City
- Noel Leu, cofounder, Grilli Type, Lucerne
- Ryoko Nishizuka, principal designer of Japanese typography, Adobe, Tokyo
A benefit of TDC’s recent merger with The One Club is TDC juries will for the first time use The One Club’s robust judging platform, featuring the same proprietary, state-of-the-art voting and scoring technology used for The One Show and ADC Annual Awards..
TDC67 and 24TDC winners receive a Certificate of Typographic Excellence and digital tag certifying their work is among the world’s best of the year. Winning work will be featured in the highly respected TDC Annual, The World’s Best Typography® and showcased in an exhibition that is displayed at The Cooper Union in New York and travels to museums, schools and design organizations around the world. In the student categories, three students for TDC67 and one for 24TDC will win monetary awards.
“This year’s competitions will be more exciting due to the wider audience reach as a result of the merger,” said Carol Wahler, TDC executive director. “We expect to see many new, creative and innovative uses of typography.”
TDC67 and 24TDC branding by Juan Carlos Pagan and Sunday Afternoon
The launch is supported by a captivating branding campaign designed by TDC67 jury chair Juan Carlos Pagan and his team at Sunday Afternoon.
“This year’s Type Directors Club 67th brand campaign is rooted in the simple idea of connecting,” said Pagan. “The way we connect with our work, and work of others we admire. The connections we have with typography, and most importantly the connections we have to each other.”
He and his team developed a design system, and a quirky custom typeface with letter-forms that embrace each other in fun, unconventional ways. They paired it with Geograph, a geometric sans serif from Klim Type Foundry, Wellington, New Zealand.
“Some of the connections are natural and obvious, while others are a little bit odd and uncomfortable. Just as our relationships are in real life,” added Pagan, who currently works out of Valencia, Spain and is a past winner of both TDC’s Ascenders and The One Club’s Young Guns 11 competitions recognizing young creatives.
Background
Established in 1946 in New York, TDC celebrates and amplifies the power of typography and serves as a global community united by the shared belief that type drives culture and culture drives type.
This year marks the first editions of these typography awards competitions since the announcement of TDC’s merger with The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community.
“For 74 years, TDC has been the world’s leading typography organization with a rich heritage of fostering and celebrating excellence in the field,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “We are thrilled to now be a part of these prestigious awards competitions, and will provide the resources and infrastructure to broaden and grow their visibility in the global creative community.”