TDC72 Awards Ceremony and Exhibition Announced
Join us July 16th, 2026 for the biggest TDC Awards Show yet!
Get ready to help us celebrate the winners of the 72nd year of the Type Directors Club’s annual competition, honoring The World’s Best Typography.
The evening includes a breathtaking exhibition of the best physical work, posters, books, and packaging, plus amazing displays of type-in-motion.
The awards show is the moment we finally reveal this year’s Best of Discipline winners and Judges' Choice selections.
But more than that, we are introducing our brand new Type-High Award, a first-ever trophy in Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Find out what entrants won this new level of distinction!
Doors: 6:00pm
Ceremony: 7:00– 8:30pm
Post-reception: 8:30 pm
VENUE
Theater at The Lighthouse
58 Kent Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
ABOUT THE VENUE
The Lighthouse is the first-ever creative campus & studio playground for the Creator Economy.
The campuses are designed to enable and empower career creators & creative professionals. promising to provide creators from all walks of life a place to call their own, a place to co-create, connect with one another, learn from each other, share their ideas and grow as founders of the businesses fueling creative culture.
TICKETS:
INTRODUCING THE TYPE-HIGH AWARDS
Every winning entrant stands tall among the world’s best typographic practitioners. But even within this lofty cohort, some works stand above the rest. So this year, TDC is introducing the Type-High award in Gold, Silver, and Bronze. This special award recognizes the best of the best in each discipline.
Upcoming Events
Movement Matters: Variable Fonts’ New Tonal Expressions
Aleksandra Samuļenkova, TDC72 Type Design Competition, Jury President
When Type Directors Club asked me to share type design projects I admire, I assumed that focusing on my immediate surroundings would make the task less intimidating.
Yet celebrating the local type design scene proves overwhelming when living in the Netherlands, a country densely populated by type designers from all over the world. There is so much thriving in its typographically rich, diverse soil.
COMMUNICATION DESIGN, LETTERING, TYPE DESIGN JURY ANNOUNCED
We are honored to announce this year’s competition jury, a robust lineup of global creative leaders with impeccable type knowledge.
These jurors have been carefully selected by the Presidents of the three Disciplines (Communication Design, Lettering, and Type Design, and reviewed by our illustrious advisory board to ensure the highest standards of expertise. We’ve included experts across a broad range of writing systems so that the work can be judged more thoughtfully.
Discipline President Lisa Smith (Communication Design), Mary Kate McDevitt (Lettering), and Aleksanda Samulenkova (Type Design) have compiled a list of jury members whose qualifications stagger even our type-jaded minds.
In future weeks we’ll be showing off this staggering expertise in more detail, showcasing individual talents
TDC CONFERENCE: TYPE DRIVES COMMERCE 2026
Taking place on March 13, 2026 at Fordham University at Lincoln Center (113 W 60th St. in New York) Type Drives Commerce is a curated series of keynotes, panel discussions, and one-on-one chats, designed to directly engage a broad range of players in the typographic ecosystem. It brings together people who rarely sit in the same room — designers who create typefaces and lettering systems, creative operations teams that manage the assets and tools, and brand leaders who fund it — for a rare 360-degree view of the current typographic landscape, fostering community and creative growth.
Type Drives Commerce looks at typography as a driver of value, not just in terms of financial bottom lines, but in terms of how it elevates connection, culture, and community.
Conference lineup:
Audrie Poole, Executive Producer, Partner, Sunday Afternoon, New York
Gary Fogelson, Partner, Other Means, Brooklyn
Jeremy Mickel, Founder & Creative Director, MCKL Design, Los Angeles
John Kudos, Managing Partner, KUDOS Design Collaboratory, New York
Jolene Delisle, Founder, The Working Assembly, New York
Lauren Hom, Letterer, Illustrator, Hom Sweet Hom, Detroit, USA
Min Lew, Managing Partner, Executive Creative Director, BASE Design, New York
Rich Tu, Executive Creative Director, Partner, Sunday Afternoon, New York
Teddy Blanks, Title Designer, CHIPS, Brooklyn
Zipeng Zhu, Artist, Creative Director, Dazzle, New York
Additional speakers to be announced.
News
Weekly Type
The TDC celebrates and amplifies the undeniable power of typography. We are a global community united by the shared belief that type drives culture and culture drives type.
Traveling Exhibition
Additional cities include São Paulo, Montreal, Dallas, Shanghai, Bucharest, Québec, Weimar, Karlsruhe, Auckland, Singapore, Los Angeles, Kanazawa, Porto Alegre, Macao, Überlingen, Cracow, Barreiro, Kyiv, Chicago, Jeddah, Brooklyn, Zürich, Changsha, Nanjing, Chengdu, Osaka, Porto, Saarbrücken, Rio de Janeiro.
If you are interested in hosting a TDC exhibition, please contact us.
TDC71 Competition entries from
Become A Member
By becoming a TDC member, you become part of a legacy that has included some of the most influential and iconic designers of their time. You’ll also join TDC members around the world in defining the future of type, with benefits that include discounted access to salons, industry conferences, workshops, and more. Visit our Membership page for options.
