The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization and part of The One Club for Creativity, has opened the call for entries and announced juries for its two premiere global awards programs: TDC68 Communication Design and expanded 25TDC Typeface Design competitions.

TDC68 recognizes how letterforms are used, honoring typographic excellence and innovation along with the art and craft of typography and design.  25TDC focuses on how letterforms are drawn, and celebrates new typeface designs in non-Latin letterforms.  The competitions regularly receive entries from more than 60 countries.

To be eligible, work must have been produced or published in the 2021 calendar year.  Early bird deadline for entry is October 29, 2021, with final deadline December 17, 2021.  More details on both competitions can be found on the entry site.

This year’s awards competitions reflect TDC’s ongoing commitment to increase the level of diversity and representation in its juries, awards entries and general programming, as well as among TDC membership and on its Advisory Board.  

Full juries for both competitions are as follows:

TDC68 Communications Design

Co-Chair: Manija Emran, co-founder/creative director, Me and the Bootmaker, Los Angeles

Co-chair: Joe Newton, partner, Anderson Newton Design, New York

A highlight for this year is the expanded 25TDC Typeface Design competition, which for the first time includes dedicated categories and expert judges for Arabic, Indic, and Chinese/Japanese/Korean.  The competition has always accepted entries for those scripts; this expansion of dedicated categories and additional judges was prompted by the increased number of entries for these scripts in recent years.

Each of the script categories has three dedicated expert jury members, increasing the total number of 25TDC jurors from six to 14.  This represents the typeface design competition’s largest awards jury expansion in its 25-year history, a reflection of TDC’s mission to recognize and support the diverse global type design community.

25TDC Typeface Design

Co-chair: Dr. Nadine Chahine, director, ArabicType; CEO, I Love Typography, London

Co-chair: Ksenya Samarskaya, director, Samarskaya & Partners, Brooklyn.

Main category

Arabic

Indic

Chinese/Japanese/Korean

Also new this year, TDC68 Communications Design includes a new Design for Social Good category, in recognition of the important role that design plays in furthering social causes.  

In addition, an exciting change to TDC student entries will be announced shortly.

TDC68 and 25TDC 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 eight  exhibitions that travels to museums, schools and design organizations around the world.  In the student categories, three students for TDC68 and one for 25TDC will win monetary awards.

TDC68/25TDC branding by Tereza Bettinardi

This year’s call for entries is supported by a striking branding campaign designed by TDC member Tereza Bettinardi, based in São Paulo, which creatively explores the “counterspaces” or inner parts of letters.

“The design process started with one question: what if we expand the inner shapes of the letters to create new forms?.” she said.  “As these small shapes expand and are used to create entirely new forms, at some point we end up also setting new rules to this infinite game.”

Bettinardi also brought warmth to the design system by using vibrant colors and gradients -- a way to share a bit of her landscape -- inspired by vernacular lettering and signs. 

“Living and working in Brazil, much of my practice was coined in dealing with restrictions, such as how to find drops of wonder even in the driest places,” she explained.  “In this sense, you need to pay a lot of attention because every minor gesture counts. My team and I hope this campaign can ignite a conversation with the TDC community to keep expanding into and embracing more diverse perspectives.”

Typefaces for the campaign are Proxy by Commercial Type and ABC Laica by Dinamo, both of which were generously donated by the foundries.

Bettinardi was a two-time winner in last year’s TDC67 competition, receiving certificates for As Mulheres Contam on behalf of Carambaia in Books/Single, and Cursos E Oficinas for Sesc 24 de Maio in Miscellaneous/Campaigns.  She was also a featured speaker at TDC’s recent Type Drives Communities conference, where she talked about her pandemic book club project Clube do Livro do Design.

TDC is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary as an professional design organization, and its second year as part of The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost nonprofit whose mission is to support the global creative community.

Branding identity work by COLLINS San Francisco on behalf of the San Francisco Symphony was named Best in Show in the Type Directors Club 67th Communications Design awards.  

The announcement, along with TDC Judge’s Choices and Student Monetary Awards winners, was made on the opening day of The One Club for Creativity’s global Creative Week 2021.

The San Francisco Symphony is a 108-year old international cultural touchstone with a deep legacy of rewriting the rules to advance the orchestral arts.  COLLINS was invited to help define and express a new vision for the future of classical music under visionary conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, the symphony’s music director.

As the Symphony experiments, an ever-evolving visual system brings to life the music itself.  Working with type foundry Dinamo Basel, COLLINS used responsive and variable font technology to add unexpected contemporary behavior, giving each typographic character the ability to immediately change form in reaction to sound and music. 

“Thirty-five years ago, as a blundering novice, my team was honored with the very first creative award I really wanted my team to win. It was from the Type Directors Club,” said Brian Collins, chief creative officer, COLLINS.  “And 35 years later, for our team to be awarded any recognition from the TDC remains an uncommon achievement.” 

He added: “But over this past difficult year, it is not only a blessing, but an unfathomable gift that our work with the remarkable San Francisco Symphony was selected as Best in Show.  On behalf of everyone at COLLINS in San Francisco, we want to thank all of the judges of this year's exhibition for thinking so highly of our work.”

TDC Judge’s Choices

Each year, TDC announces the top selection of awards entries from individual jury members.  Judge’s Choices for 2021, followed by the jury member who made the pick, are as follows.

TDC67 Communication Design Judge’s Choice:

24TDC Typeface Design Judge’s Choices:

TDC Student Monetary Awards were also announced.

TDC67 winners: 

24TDC winner:

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 57 countries.

A total of 274 TDC Certificates of Typographic Excellence — 254 for TDC67 and 20 for 24TDC — were awarded this year and are featured in a special showcase, which can be viewed here.  

This year’s winners represent 39 countries, with the US leading the way with 122 winners, followed by Germany with 25, mainland China with 19 and Canada with 13. The winners will be published in the TDC annual, The World’s Best Typography®, Typography 42.

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.  The competition was established in 1955.

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.  

Creative Week 2021 sponsors include Shutterstock, Verizon and Working Not Working.

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization and part of The One Club for Creativity, has unveiled the   for its two premiere global awards programs: TDC67 Communication Design and 24TDC Typeface Design competitions.

COLLINS picked up eight TDC67 Certificates, with the New York office winning five — two for Crane Paper Company (one for logotype and one with The Nucleus Group New York for brand Identity), two for Medium (brand identity and website), and one for Primary brand identity.  COLLINS San Francisco picked up three TDC67 Certificates, including two for San Francisco Symphony, one for dynamic logotype and the other with Dinamo Basel for brand identity.

Also with eight TDC67 Certificates was Pentagram.  The New York office won seven Certificates, including two for The New Republic (for identify/branding campaign and logotype) and one each for The New York Times, “Saturday Night Live”, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Tablet and United Nations Postal Administration.  Pentagram Design Ltd London won for “AA Files” editorial on behalf of Architectural Association School of Architecture London.

The New York Times Magazine was next with seven TDC67 Certificates, including wins for six editorial singles and one for editorial campaign entries.

Other top winners include Kevin Cantrell Studio Mantua Utah, Foreign Policy Design Group Singapore, Mailchimp Atlanta and Miklós Kiss Budapest, each with four TDC67 Certificates.  Nine entrants won three Certificates.

Among student winners, ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena won 12 TDC67 Certificates, and School of Visual Arts New York won nine.  In the student categories, three students for TDC67 and one for 24TDC will win monetary awards.

Entries were received from 57 countries.  A total of 274 TDC Certificates of Typographic Excellence — 254 for TDC67 and 20 for 24TDC — were featured in the special showcase, which can be viewed here.  This year’s winners represent 39 countries, with the US leading the way with 122 winners, followed by Germany with 25, mainland China with 19 and Canada with 13.

“Opening the competitions following several months of hardship, unemployment and lost clients created a lot of uncertainty,” said Elizabeth Carey Smith, TDC past-president and chair of its Advisory Board.  “But as we found out, people channeled that uncertainty in incredibly creative, expressive ways, and we’re so proud of all the work submitted.  As an organization that strives to recognize typography all over the world, we’re also delighted this year to have entries from nearly 60 countries.”

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.

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 exhibits that travel to museums, schools and design organizations around the world. 

This year’s awards competitions reflect TDC’s commitment to ensure diversity within its TDC67 Communication Design and 24TDC Typeface Design juries.

TDC kicks off The One Club’s virtual Creative Week 2021 on Monday, June 7 with announcement of this year’s Best of Show and Judges’ Choice winners for the TDC67 Communication Design and 24TDC Typeface Design competitions.  In addition, TDC will announce first-, second- and third-place Student monetary winners, and the first-place Student Typeface winner. 

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.  The competition was established in 1955.

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.  

The Type Directors Club (TDC) announced the launch of Type Drives Communities, a global conference that will explore the ways typography is used to form and transform creative communities.

Taking place online on May 7-8, 2021, the conference includes two half-days of talks, presentations and group discussion spanning a broad range of design disciplines, and both local and global communities.  Early-bird registration for reduced-price tickets is available through April 12, 2021.  

Sessions will highlight communities that use typography to pursue a common purpose, establish intergenerational connections, and spark and sustain change. Discussions will also encompass what these strategies suggest about how designers might navigate the challenges of our present moment of physical distance and virtual connection.

TDC, part of The One Club for Creativity, has assembled a top global panel of diverse voices to share their experiences in driving communities, including:

“Type Drives Communities celebrates several designers who are using typography and design as the catalyst to connect people during the pandemic, as well as through several generations,” said conference co-chair Paul Carlos, principal, Pure+Applied, New York; adjunct faculty, Parsons School of Design, The New School.  

He added sessions will also show how different communities are tackling immediate and long-standing issues such as decolonization and cultural hegemony, and highlight some of our global members who will show us how they are influenced by the typography in their city.

“Although the pandemic obliged us to launch our first virtual conference, we really wanted to infuse the event with a communal spirit”, said conference co-chair Zelda Harrison, principal, ZHarrison & Associates/ZELDESIGN, Los Angeles.  “We will encourage early-bird registrants to help us moderate roundtable sessions, showcase their work for sale in our virtual marketplace, and urge attendees to engage with speakers in intimate, small group sessions.” 

Type Drive Communities is made possible in part through the support of sponsors Adobe, Occupant, Mark Simonson Studio, VLLG, Morisawa and Commercial.

More information about this upcoming conference and registration is available here.

The Type Directors Club, the leading global typography organization, has enhanced diversity within its leadership with the announcement of a new TDC Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board, which includes five new members, is the first elected by TDC membership since the organization became part of The One Club for Creativity last October. The merger provides TDC with resources and infrastructure to broaden and grow its programming and aligns with TOCC’s existing emphasis on promoting diversity and inclusion.

Joining as new members are:

Returning to the TDC Advisory Board are:

Christopher Sergio has also been appointed to represent TDC on The One Club Board of Directors.  Carol Wahler continues in her role as TDC executive director.

TDC will continue to be run as an autonomous, committee-based organization, with the Advisory Board responsible for all TDC programming, effective January 2021.  

A top priority of the new TDC Advisory Board is to take action on how to authentically address the industry’s stark inclusion and diversity problems through representation, membership and programming.  

“The new members bring a wealth of experience and diverse perspectives to the TDC Advisory Board, helping us create new paths forward in the creative community and maintaining our commitment to celebrating typographic excellence,” said Elizabeth Carey Smith, TDC past-president who will serve as board chair.

Established in New York in 1946, 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.  The organization runs the esteemed TDC Communication Design and TDC Typeface Design competitions, produces The World’s Best Typography® annual, coordinates traveling global exhibitions of award-winning work, offers scholarship programs and hosts conferences, classes, workshops, Type Salons and a design jobs board.

The One Club is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support the global creative community.  The club takes revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows -- including The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Young Ones Student Awards, Young Guns and others -- and puts it back into the industry to fund programs under its four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality and Professional Development.  

These programs include the annual Where Are All The Black People diversity conference and career fair, ONE School free portfolio program for Black creatives, Creative Boot Camps for diverse college students, Right the Ratio Summits addressing gender equality, 2nd Skill to train traditional creatives on UX, UI and content strategy to upskill and future-proof them for the second creative career, Global Educators Summits, Creative Leaders Retreats, mentorship programs for more than 200 young creatives each year, bi-annual Saturday Career Workshops for high school students, and more.

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.

TDC67 Communication Design:

Chair: Juan Carlos Pagan, founding partner, executive creative director, Sunday Afternoon, New York

24TDC Typeface Design:

Chair: Ksenya Samarsakya, strategic consultant, creative director, Samarskaya & Partners, Lisbon

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.”

The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community, announced a merger agreement with the Type Directors Club, the leading global typography organization.

The move brings the Type Directors Club (TDC) under The One Club for Creativity (TOCC) umbrella, providing resources and infrastructure to broaden and grow its programming and placing new emphasis on promoting diversity and inclusion in the global typography community.  

The merger was approved in a vote by Boards and membership of both organizations, and is now pending approval by the New York State Attorney General's office. 

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.  The organization halted operations this past July due to organizational and financial challenges, both of which are being addressed with a transformation of operational focus and management.

“TDC is an important creative organization with a rich heritage, and brings a great new dimension to the TOCC and the global creative community at large,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “This marks a new chapter for the TDC.  It’s a chance to redefine the organization and what it means to be a member by providing access to our inclusion and diversity, gender equality, professional development and education programming.”

As part of The One Club for Creativity, TDC will continue as an autonomous, committee-based organization and maintain its highly-regarded Communication Design awards competition; Typeface Design competition recognizing work from independent designers, agencies and foundries; Ascenders competition honoring type-based portfolios of designers age 35 and under; and The TDC Medal recognizing individuals and institutions who have made outstanding contributions to the field of typography, and whose work and talent have demonstrated the value of typography in communication, community and culture.

The organization produces The World’s Best Typography® annual, showcases winning work in an exhibition at The Cooper Union in New York, and coordinates traveling exhibitions to museums, schools and design organizations globally.  TDC also hosts and sponsors conferences, classes, workshops, exhibitions, Type Salons, a design jobs board and scholarship programs, including the Beatrice Warde, Superscript and TDC Scholarships for deserving students. 

TDC membership will remain intact, with added benefits in conjunction with The One Club offerings to be announced shortly.  

“The TDC simultaneously faced organizational and financial issues, and this merger offers the infrastructure for a fresh start so our Advisory Board can instead focus on what it's good at: promoting typographic excellence with an anti-racist commitment to broaden what our industry lauds,” said Elizabeth Carey Smith, TDC past president.  "We'll have the opportunity to bring in new voices and reach a greater audience, with the hopes of fostering the love of type in more diverse communities."

One initiative already in the works is a new outreach program aimed at introducing typography and design to high-school students, particularly those in underserved communities.

TDC awards and programming will be run by an Interim Advisory Board consisting of Elizabeth Carey Smith, ECS (chair), Paul Carlos, Pure+Applied, Ingrid Chou, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Liz DeLuna, main5 design, Carrie Hamilton, Carrie Hamilton Design, John Kudos, KASA Collective, Bobby C. Martin, Jr., Champions Design, Joe Newton, Anderson Newton Design, Juan Carlos Pagan, Sunday Afternoon, YuJune Park, Synoptic Office and Chris Sergio, Macmillan Publishers.  

The interim board is actively looking to invite candidates for the new TDC Advisory Board under TOCC.  One member of the TDC Advisory Board will be appointed to The One Club Board of Directors.  Carol Wahler, TDC executive director, will join The One Club as a full-time staff member.

The merger does not include the Typographic Design Center, a separate nonprofit entity that maintained TDC educational support initiatives. This allows the TDC to apply for educational grants for financial support of the physical archives and its digitization, as well as for the Typegeist academic publishing platform.  

The move follows the successful 2016 merger of The One Club and the Art Directors Club (ADC), two of the most respected nonprofits in advertising and design, to form The One Club for Creativity as the world’s foremost nonprofit organization for the creative community.  

TOCC serves as the umbrella organization for The One Show, ADC Annual Awards (now celebrating is historic ADC100 centennial), Young Ones Student Awards, Young Guns, Creative Hall of Fame, One Screen short film festival, Next Creative Leaders, The One Show Greater China and The One Show Global Creative Rankings.

In addition to these awards and recognition programs, other ongoing TOCC programming includes Creative Week, the ONE School portfolio program for Black creatives, Where Are All The Black People annual diversity conference and career fair, Creative Boot Camps, global Portfolio Night, Mentor & Creative, Global Educators Summit, Creative Leaders Retreats, Executive Creative Summits, Right the Ratio Summit, Diverse Ad Talent Directory The One Club COVID-19 Jobs Board, Online Student Portfolio Reviews, Saturday Career Workshops for talented high school students and more.

Inclusion and diversity has long been one of The One Club’s four pillars for programming.  The organization formed its One ID department in 2008 and established its annual Where Are All The Black People diversity conference and career fair in 2011.  Other initiatives include the free ONE School portfolio program for Black creatives, Creative Boot Camps held around the world offering diverse students three days of hands-on training at an ad agency, and the free One Club Diverse Talent Ad Directory for people looking to hire and get hired.

TOCC also recently increased diversity within its leadership with the appointments of Gail Anderson, chair of BFA Design and BFA Advertising at the School of Visual Arts, New York, and Sherina Florence, creative director at Ogilvy, New York, to its Board of Directors.  More than 60% of The One Club Board is made up of women and people of color.