Type Directors Club Announces Global Jury for TDC70 Competition

Oct. 24, 2023

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization, has announced the global jury for the prestigious TDC70 competition.

The program is a single competition under the TDC70 umbrella consisting of three disciplines: Communication Design, Lettering, and Type Design. Confirmed judges for each discipline are as follows:

Communications Design

• Maria Asare-Boadi, art director, Meta, New York
• Andy Chen, partner, Isometric Studio, New York
• Mark De Winne, creative director, Relay Room/Multitudes, Singapore
• Manija Emran, cofounder, creative director, Me & the Bootmaker, Los Angeles
• Emily Oberman,  partner, Pentagram, New York
• Tala Safie, graphics and multimedia editor, The New York Times, New York
• Yoshihisa Shirai (白井敬尚), graphic designer, Shirai Design Studio; professor. Musashino Art University, Tokyo

Type Design

• Elí Castellanos, font developer, CocijoType, Queretaro
• Jo De Baerdemaeker, typeface designer, font developer, scholar, studio type, Antwerp
• Cyrus Highsmith, creative director, Occupant Fonts, Providence
• Caroline Laudon, MFA graphic designer, type designer, type director, Laudon Design AB, Gothenburg
• Sammy Or, type director, VMType, Hong Kong
• Isao Suzuki (鈴木功), director, type director, Type Project Inc., Tokyo

Lettering

• Alanna Flowers, lettering artist, designer, AGF Design Studio, New York
• Ricardo González Contreras, artist, designer, IT’S A LIVING, New York
• Ilana Griffo and Katie Johnson, co-owners, Goodtype, New York/Austin
• Ben Johnston, artist, designer, Toronto
• Ken-Tsai Lee, associate professor, ken-tsai lee design Lab/Taiwan TECH, Taipei
• Lygia Pires, lettering artist, illustrator, graphic designer, Lygia Pires Studio, São Paulo 
• Arley Torsone, letterer, designerer, illustrator, Ladyfingers Letterpress, Colorado Springs

This year’s TDC70 competition committee is co-chaired by Eric Q. Liu, typographer, editor, podcaster and writer with The Type in Tokyo, and Trisha Tan, design director based in Brooklyn, with support from TDC Advisory Board member John Kudos, managing partner, KUDOS Design Collaboratory and KASA Collective in New York.

While the competition always accepted international and multilingual entries, the addition of more judges in recent years was a reflection of TDC’s commitment to have a greater number of the most appropriate experts judging designs for which they have a deep knowledge.

To be eligible, work must have been produced or published in the 2023 calendar year. Early bird deadline for entry is October 27, 2023, with entry fees increasing for the regular deadline of December 8, 2024, and final deadline on January 26, 2024.  

The TDC competition regularly receives entries from more than 60 countries. To make TDC70 as accessible as possible on a global level, the organization is offering significant regional discounts on entry fees.  

Approximately half of the world’s countries qualify for a 60% discount, and another quarter of them receive a 20% discount, with only the most economically prosperous countries and regions paying the full entry fee. Additional discounts are also available to TDC members and students.

Winners of TDC70 receive a Certificate of Typographic Excellence and digital seal certifying their work is among the world’s best of the year.  Winning work will also be featured in the highly respected TDC Annual, The World’s Best Typography®, and showcased in eight exhibitions that travel to museums, schools and design organizations around the world. 

Branding for this year’s competition was created by Wolff Olins, with fonts generously donated by Neubau, based in Berlin.

Please visit the TDC70 entry site for more information and to enter this year’s competition.