The Type Directors Club is pleased to announce that its World’s Best Typography exhibition is coming to Auckland, New Zealand for the second time, courtesy of award-winning creative agency Osborne Shiwan and Portfolio Recruitment.

Direct from its New York showing, TDC65 Auckland will showcase an exciting and culturally diverse range of award-winning work chosen by some of the design industry’s most recognised mentors, creative innovators and thought-leaders. The exhibition will be on display at Auckland University of Technology’s St Paul St Gallery Two from March 4 to 28.

Lloyd Osborne, Creative Director at Osborne Shiwan, thinks this is the best reflection of current typographic excellence at an international level. “This competition received thousands of submissions that were narrowed to just 253 examples from over 38 countries. There is a wealth of diversity on show, through language, culture, and type design. As alumni, we are proud to bring TDC65 to AUT.”

As well as communication design, TDC65 Auckland will showcase typefaces chosen from a record 350 submissions, including ‘Serif UI’ by the Apple Design Team and ‘Heldane’ by New Zealand based Kris Sowersby at Klim.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10am – 5pm.

To learn more about the works in this exhibition, read about the poster project from Brazil that received the Best in Show award here, and the award-winning student work here.

Read more about these Judges’ Choices, which are featured in TDC65 Auckland:

About Osborne Shiwan

Founded in 2006, Osborne Shiwan is an Auckland-based creative agency specialising in strategic thinking and art direction. Creative Directors Lloyd Osborne and Shabnam Shiwan have collaborated with some of New Zealand’s most influential brands and their work has been recognised internationally within the areas of commerce, arts and culture.

 

As a lead-up to our March salon and workshop with Elliot Jay Stocks, we sat down with the Creative Director of Maido to find out more about the topics he’ll be covering at Type Directors Club on March 12 and 14:

What is Really the (Really) New Typography?

The amazing thing about typography is that its guiding principles have been built up over hundreds of years, and what makes great typography holds true whatever the medium. But in recent years, there have still been some pretty huge advances in the field, led by technology, and there are questions to be answered for designers choosing to work with these new tools. Web type has come of age — but how do you implement features reliably across browsers and platforms? Apps have built upon the foundation laid by web design — but how do you legitimately find and license fonts for use in apps? Variable Fonts offer a way of working with type that goes beyond the limitations of traditional weights, widths, and styles — but how do you actually use them?

What do you think has changed in typography since you last spoke at the TDC six years ago?

At the time, if I remember correctly, OpenType on the web had just come to fruition in terms of browser support and relatively unified CSS used to make use of these features, but since then things have got even better for the web — especially with the advent of OpenType Variable Fonts. That’s probably the single biggest development that interests me. Not only does it upend traditional notions of what makes up a font family, but it brings with it some really important technical benefits for folks working on the web — and questions to be answered, of course!

What is one key thing our members may possibly take away from your talk without giving it all away?

My hope is that the talk will arm attendees with everything they need to make the most of all these amazing new tools we have with digital typography — a one-stop-shop for all of your present and near-future font questions.

For your workshop, what are questions designers have been afraid to ask?

I think there are so many things. Typography is a potentially daunting subject. Even as a professional designer, how do you apply consistent typographic treatments across media? And what even is good typography? It can be hard to judge, and having the right processes in place to make that judgement can be hugely beneficial. So much of typography is about consistency, attention to spacing, and making things appear aligned even if they’re not — as is often the case with default settings. A lot of the workshop focuses on understanding the fundamental rules — and then understanding when and how to break them. This is advice that will hopefully benefit students just starting out right through to veteran professionals who’ve felt that they’ve never quite grappled great typography, or understood some of the more bleeding-edge techniques and tools.

Do you have a particular pedagogy when it comes to workshops? What should they expect?

Participants can expect a fun but information-dense day where we explore some of the foundational aspects of typography to start, and gradually build to a very holistic view on great typesetting practices, with plenty of advanced concepts explored across multiple media by the end of the day. There are plenty of slides and exercises to guide us through the day, but I also like to keep things friendly and informal — it's great when participants ask questions and really get involved, and I'm always happy to go off on a tangent if that helps attendees get more out of the session.

Is it a lecture or hands-on involvement?

It’s a bit of both. There are very specific sections, so I’ll talk for a bit, introduce (or reiterate) some concepts, and then at the end of the main sections, everyone is set a quick-fire exercise related to what’s been learned in that section. Participants present their outcomes to the group and talk about why they've made certain decisions. It's pretty fun.

Why did you leave Adobe/TypeKit? Were you ready for a new challenge?

I really miss my Typekit team! In fact, I'm meeting up with many of them while I'm in New York. But yeah, after three years there, I wanted to explore some other avenues.

What was that challenge?

Mainly, I wanted to dedicate the majority of my time to Lagom, the lifestyle magazine I founded with my wife in 2014. Around the time I left Typekit, that was growing and needed more time dedicated to it. I also wanted to explore independent life again, as I’d been working freelance for many years prior to joining Adobe. Eventually I did return to employment, though, and we also decided to stop the magazine last year. On reflection, my time at Typekit was one of my career highlights, especially because of the people.

What are you currently working on?

On Mondays, I make music (I release music on a few record labels as ‘Other Form’); on Tuesdays to Fridays I lead the design team at Maido as the agency's Creative Director. We’re a small digital agency, working mainly in the social impact / non-profit space to use design to improve the lives of millions.

*   *  *

Elliot Jay Stocks, a designer and musician who is currently the Creative Director of Maido, co-founded the lifestyle magazine Lagom, and is well known in typographic circles as former Creative Director of Adobe Typekit and founder of the typography magazine 8 Faces.

Get in on this conversation with Elliot:

This event is the second in a series of three seminars in Arabic Type: Between Heritage and Modernity, dedicated to Arabic type design and typography, curated by typography expert Dr. Nadine Chahine for the Center for Book Arts.

The afternoon will feature:

For more on each of the speakers, click here.

The theme of the series revolves around concepts of modernity in Arabic type design, the heritage of Arabic letterforms in the context of current technologies, contemporary Arabic branding design, and the history of Arab graphic design. The series brings together renowned and award winning designers working with Arabic type, both from the US and the Middle East.

Since 1974, The Center for Book Arts has promoted active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. The Center seeks to facilitate communication between the book arts community and the larger spheres of contemporary visual and literary arts, while being a model organization locally, nationally, and internationally within the field. CBA achieve this through exhibitions, classes, public programming, literary presentations, opportunities for artists and writers, publications, and collecting.

Other events in the series are:

Support for​ ​The Center for Book Arts’ 2020 History of Art Series is provided, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council.

This event is the third in a series of three seminars in Arabic Type: Between Heritage and Modernity, dedicated to Arabic type design and typography, curated by typography expert Dr. Nadine Chahine for the Center for Book Arts.

This evening will feature:

For more on each of the speakers, click here.

The theme of the series revolves around concepts of modernity in Arabic type design, the heritage of Arabic letterforms in the context of current technologies, contemporary Arabic branding design, and the history of Arab graphic design. The series brings together renowned and award winning designers working with Arabic type, both from the US and the Middle East.

Since 1974, The Center for Book Arts has promoted active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. The Center seeks to facilitate communication between the book arts community and the larger spheres of contemporary visual and literary arts, while being a model organization locally, nationally, and internationally within the field. CBA achieve this through exhibitions, classes, public programming, literary presentations, opportunities for artists and writers, publications, and collecting.

Support for​ ​The Center for Book Arts’ 2020 History of Art Series is provided, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council.

Originally debuted in New York City, The World’s Best Typography: The 65th Annual Exhibition of the Type Directors Club (TDC65) is a travelling exhibit that features communication design and selections from the twenty-first annual typeface design competition hosted by the Type Directors Club in 2019.

Hosted by Areté, the creativity and innovation hub of Ateneo De Manila University, the exhibition displays typography in a wide range of books, posters, corporate branding, logos, web graphics, film and TV titles, products, and magazines from around the world. This exhibition arrives in Manila after its showings in Tokyo, Seoul, Warsaw, Lille, Barcelona, Nagoya, Minneapolis, Osaka, Taipei, and Ontario.

TDC65 will be on display in Manila, Philippines for a limited run, from February 22-March 27, 2020 in the George SK Ty Learning Innovation Wing of the university. Visiting hours are from Mondays-Fridays from 8 am to 7 pm, and on Saturday from 9 am to 5pm.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

To learn more about the works in this exhibition, read about the poster project from Brazil that received the Best in Show award here, and the award-winning student work here.

Read more about these Judges’ Choices, which are featured in this exhibition:

Love beautiful book covers? See some of the best in the latest exhibit at Type Directors Club through March 26.

She Designs Books celebrates two years of recognizing women designers working in book publishing with a special exhibition at Type Directors Club.

Founded by Anne Twomey and Nicole Caputo, the organization promotes, supports, and celebrates female designers creating memorable book covers.

The She Designs Books Celebrates 2 Years! exhibition, on view through March 31, features books and posters of the best-loved covers featured on the She Designs Books Instagram feed over the last two years.

The exhibition is free and open to the public Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm by appointment only.

Call 212-633-8943 or email director@tdc.org for an appointment.

See photos of the exhibition here.

This show features work by 22 designers:

Robin Biradello
Nicole Caputo
Catherine Casalino
Donna Cheng
Cassie Gonzalez
Kimberly Glyder
Olga Grlic
Grace Han
Janet Hansen
Jan Heuer
Linda Huang
Laywan Kwan
Marcie Lawrence
Juliana Lee
Emily Mahon
Anna Morrison
Mumtaz Mustafa
Joanna O’Neill
June Park
Allison Saltzman
Nicole Seeback
Anne Twomey
Rachel Wiley

To see more beautiful work, follow She Designs Books:
Instagram: @shedesignsbooks
Facebook @shedesignsbooks
Twitter @shedesignsbooks

Sponsor: A2A Studio Solutions

Come meet the judges of the TDC Communication Design and Type Design competitions and mingle with fellow type and design enthusiasts.

Hosted by the competition chairs, Liz DeLuna, Douglas Riccardi and Juan Villanueva and featuring your judges:

Read more about each judge here.

We’ll be asking questions like:

Find a warm place among type nerds and come beat the winter blues at Parsons Theresa Lang Auditorium, and thanks to our friends at Parsons.

Schedule

6:30 Doors open & check-in
7:00 Event Begins
8:00 Event reception

In this deeply detailed but varied all-day workshop, Elliot will cover a huge spectrum of typographic knowledge, from foundational best practices and definitions to the very latest techniques and technologies for setting great type across multiple media.

Drawing on his extensive experience designing for print and screens, Elliot will guide you through the intricacies of using type in a deliberate and effective way, from choosing and pairing typefaces with emotional and technical goals in mind to optimising readability with spacing; from constructing a typographic system to loading fonts on the web; from using the latest OpenType features to designing brands with the help of Variable Fonts; from the ins-and-outs of modern font licensing to where to find your next typographic inspiration.

Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer and musician, currently serving as the Creative Director of Maido. He was previously the co-founder of the lifestyle magazine Lagom, and is known in typographic circles thanks to his time as Creative Director of Adobe Typekit and founder of typography magazine 8 Faces.

Read our interview with Elliot about his workshop here.

Website — https://elliotjaystocks.com/
Instagram — @elliotjaystocks
Twitter — @elliotjaystocks

Here is our interview with typeface designer, Loris Olivier, who is currently working in Lausanne, Switzerland.

What schools did you attend?

I attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where was introduced to graphic design. Following that, I went to the ECAL in Switzerland. Directly after that, I went to The Hague to study at the KABK in the Type & Media program.

Did you have a teacher, past employer, client, or colleague who was instrumental in your career?

It would be quite difficult for me to have a short and really defined list. There are many people who are either currently in my life or who I've crossed the pass at some point.

However, I have to say that one of my teacher in San Francisco, DC Scarpelli, was the first one to believe in me vis-a-vis type design. He supported me and encouraged me like no one has. Following him, I had the chance to have François Rappo as a teacher in Switzerland, who is also a pure source of inspiration. It has been a more indirect relation but his rigor and immense knowledge is a shiny star always present far in the sky.

The whole team of teachers – Erik van Blokland, Peter Verheul, Françoise Berserik, Just van Rossum and Paul van der Laan – at the KABK in The Hague were amazing. I haven't been a very focused student but they had such an incredible amount of patience. They showed me an incredible determination through their teaching interactions.

And I can't just finish here. I owe so much to Philipp Neumeyer who has always been a constant source of encouragement and brain stimulator. I admire the way he draws and make letters talk with such elegance and the whole mystery flowing through his incredible work.

Did they have any specific advice/words of wisdom that you remember?

There have been many and hopefully there will be many more. DC Scarpelli stimulates the effervescent passion in his students, and I have been lucky to have received his constant positive energy.

The main advice I've received from my teachers and Mr. Neumeyer was all about consistency. This may sound strange but this is a complex and mysterious game of balance between design and shapes system. This applies to almost any writing system. Many people have given me advice on how to maintain consistency, but there is always the question of where to place the cursor. This helps to create any coherent visual language with any piece of visual design. At the end, the most difficult is to know when to escape this strict toolbox and give rhythm to your whole set.

Typeface design.

Which of your design projects are your favorites? Why?

Two categories of projects are my favorites. I have an example for each.

The first is when you design in partnership with someone who can provide his vision. This situation leads to the creation of new visual archetypes together. I worked with anthropology designer on his brand called Whisper and Giants. He provided me with his vision and his process vis-a-vis culture interactions. Together, we built a three-typeface system and we are still making it evolve. The goal was to twist different typographic models to create a common vision of the future. It's like shaping a new tribe. We defined it around letters of a new specific visual language. Long story short, I am crazy about branding built around multi-script systems.

I call the other example the wild card. Typically, Gloubi is one of these. Go as far as possible in any crazy direction – from a group of unusable shapes, trying to get a system, a visual algorithm.

What's your worst design experience and project? Why?

Mainly facing my frustration when there is an intuition floating and I am unable to put it down into a type or interactive project. Otherwise, being pushed to repeat the same kind of visual expression over and over is quite boring at some point. Embracing the status quo has always been my worst design nightmare.

Where do you work now? In a studio, independent, other? What’s a typical workday like?

Currently, I am lucky to work at Superhuit in Lausanne, Switzerland, as a brand strategist. On the side, I work on Latin, Hangeul, and Hanzi projects with three other designers. I have always wanted to explore new design space with these scripts and their cultures. I am dreaming of creating new visual languages.

In addition to that, I am trying to learn electronic systems and build a CNC machine with a friend. I would like to give another life and purpose to the letters I draw.

My weekdays are spent in the city of Lausanne, were Superhuit’s office is. I usually work there in the morning, and then work on my type and interactive projects. I am also trying daily to learn more about front-end development. When the weekend comes, I take a train and slowly go to the Swiss Alps. I usually juggle between hikes, working on type, calligraphy, graphic, and UI projects.

Typeface design.

What are your hobbies besides typography or design?

Aren't they all? I am kidding! Seriously, I am deeply in love with Morgins, a little Swiss village and its mountain. I spend most of my weekend on the little paths between the forest, the wild rhubarb, and the little mountain streams.

Otherwise, I am practicing capoeira. I've always loved dancing and falling on the ground like an old 33-year-old chicken while trying to do a back flip. The whole dance, martial arts, and music side have always fascinated me.

Do you know any of the other Ascenders personally? If yes, whom ?

Yes, I personally know Philipp Neumeyer. I even have his autograph; however, he wrote "back off John!" on it.

I also know the amazing work of Zhao Liu and Tien-Min Liao. I have met Mark de Winne and know his work. I am also a big fan of Wael Morcos's work.

Do you have any favorite designers and/or artists? Who are they?

Dividing by categories, I would start with purely graphic design. I have long admired the work of Ludovic Balland and his radical aesthetic practice. The work of Alex Dujet from Future Neue is also fascinating on so many levels.

Concerning Latin type design, I don't have enough arguments to express how much I admire the work of François Rappo. In addition to him, I am relaly fascinated by the work of Rui Abreu and his very diverse approach to type projects and his sharp aesthetic.

Other than that, I strongly believe in the power of writing, especially books and stories that make me escape out of my world. I am in absolute admiration of Fabienne Verdier. She is a French painter and calligrapher, who spent ten years in China learning Hanzi calligraphy. In addition to her, Sylvain Tesson and his numerous adventures that he narrates in his books are the essence of my existence.

Typeface design.

Do you think you have a design philosophy or methodology? If yes, what is it?

Philosophy might be too big of a word for me, but I need to fight against one of the bigger dangers of aging ­– losing the instinct of curiosity. I am trying to find balance between not reacting against previous projects I've done and trying to challenge myself. Going on a path where anybody would say, "That will never work! That's inappropriate and crazy!" is quite interesting. More than producing, it questions your ability to create a visual world from any piece or component.

However, globally, I have one "methodology" that is dear to my hearth: prototyping. Quick and dirty. I apply it in UI, UX, motion, graphic and type design. It's an essential constant state of exploration that indicates what potential story a product or a visual language can tell.

Now that you have had some time to think about it, what does the award mean to you?

I can hardly realize that I have received this recognition next to the stunning, amazing designers like those selected in 2018 and 2019. I feel honored and undeserving in a way.

I entered the competition thanks to someone really dear to me who pushed me hard to apply. She believed in me more than I did. For me, the TDC annuals have always been quite a prestigious series, but always a quite distant entity. I have seen certificate of excellence badges on designers that I admire on many social media. This award is not so much something of which I will be proud, but more of an encouragement and fuel to my continued exploration and practice of type in any shape and form that it might take.

 

Twitter: @teatzing
Instagram: @maru_loris

 

To see the list of all the 2019 Ascenders, click here.

 

 

TypeThursdayNYC is a monthly gathering of type geeks, held at Type Directors Club. We like to think of ourselves as a type superfamily: we attract local letterform lovers hailing from all disciplines and levels of expertise. Social hours bookend the centerpiece of our event, a group critique we refer to as Type Crit.

What the font is Type Crit‽

Briefly: It’s a critique. Of letterforms. No grades. Plenty of wine.

Verbosely: Type Crit is a group critique of up to four, in-progress projects involving letterform design and/or usage. You can get, give, or simply listen to feedback—your pick! Discussion is moderated by a TypeThursdayNYC dialogue lead—we pride ourselves on fostering a friendly forum for constructive, thoughtful advice that’ll raise the baseline on your letterform game.

QUICK LINK: Sign up to present work for feedback at Type Crit

What’s the program for the evening?

6:00pm – 6:45pm: Check in & Socializing
6:50pm: Opening Statements | Introduction
7:00pm – 8:00pm: Type Critiques
8:00pm: Closing Comments | Outro
8:10pm – 8:45pm: Socializing & End of Event