At its annual award ceremonies on July 17 at Cooper Union, the Type Directors Club presented a series of scholarships to assist the next generation of type designers toward academic and artistic success in design programs across the United States and Canada.
Blossom Liu, a student at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California was awarded the prestigious Beatrice Warde Scholarship for type design, a $5,000 competitive scholarship awarded to a female undergraduate design student for tuition for her senior year.
Blossom received the award at the public ceremony from Deborah Gonet of Monotype and TDC executive director Carol Wahler. At the request of Dr. Shelley Greundler, one of the scholarship selection committee members, award-winning illustrator Kriti Monga of Tumeric Design in New Delhi lettered the official scholarship certificate.
The selection panel was impressed with Blossom’s portfolio in which she described herself as “a transdisciplinary graphic designer from Portland” with a strong desire to use design for good “to change the world.” Her recent projects rebranding the Women’s March and Second Chances, a nonprofit after-school organization in Los Angeles. View Blossom’s impressive portfolio here.
The Beatrice Warde Scholarship panel, which reviewed applications from around the world, included Gail Anderson of Anderson Newton Design, Deborah Gonet of Monotype, Shelley Greundler of Type Camp, Rathna Ramanathan of the Royal College of Art, Mariko Takagi of Hong Kong Baptist University and Helena Lekka and TDC Medalist Fiona Ross of Reading University in the United Kingdom.
The scholarship is co-sponsored by the Type Directors Club and Monotype. Beatrice Warde (1900-1969), TDC’s first female member, believed in the merits of education and championed them throughout her professional career with the Monotype Corporation. Thus, when Monotype and the TDC established this scholarship in 2014, it was named in her honor. The next scholarship application cycle will begin in March 2020.
Read Monotype’s interview with Blossom here.
Immediately following this presentation, Bobby C. Martin, Jr., chairman of the TDC scholarship committee, presented scholarship certificates to seven students selected by schools in the United States and Japan.
- Valerie Franco, The Cooper Union
- Cody Hopper, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Han Sol Jang, School of Visual Arts
- Sirui Liao, Pratt Institute
- Jimin Park, Parsons School of Design
- Troy Vasilakis, Fashion Institute of Technology
- Jiang Jiavao, Nihon University College of Art
Type Directors Club sends $1,000 directly to each school to be allocated for each recipient’s tuition expenses.
In addition, Blossom and the other students each receive a one-year student membership to the Type Directors Club.
