First-Ever Type-High Winners Announced in Global TDC72 Competition

Jul. 20, 2026

The global Type Directors Club announced its first-ever Type-High awards winners in its prestigious TDC72 competition, unveiled at a special awards ceremony and exhibition at The Lighthouse in Brooklyn.

This marks the first time the global organization has awarded its newly created physical Type-High Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards, along with continuing to present its prestigious TDC Certificate of Merit honors. Type-High awards were named and designed by longtime TDC collaborator, life member, and organization Chairman Emeritus Graham Clifford.

Overall, 13 Gold, 26 Silver, 28 Bronze, and 92 Certificates of Merit were awarded this year.

Leading the way as TCD72 Best of Discipline winners were:

• Communication Design: SMLXL New York with Mallandrich Barcelona "Spatial Festival 2025" for Spatial Festival
• Lettering: Neighbour Co. Hong Kong SAR China “Tattour 2025 Identity” for Tattour
• Type Design: Adobe Tokyo "Momochidori Variable Font", designed by Ryoko Nishizuka and Frank Grießhammer.

Thirteen entries were awarded TDC’s first Type-High Gold awards, as follows:

• Adobe Tokyo "Momochidori Variable Font" in Type Design, Text + Display Typefaces, Variable Font, designed by Ryoko Nishizuka and Frank Grießhammer.
• Base Design New York "12 Matcha" for 12 Matcha in Communication Design, Print or Digital, Brand Identity System
• Daniel Frumhoff Design New York “Stanford d.school Yearbook ’24” for Stanford University d.school in Lettering, Publication/Editorial, Editorial/Catalog/Magazine, lettering by Hulises Ortiz and Zrinka Buljubašić.
• Mălin Neamțu The Hague “Segmentor” personal project in Type Design, Text + Display Typefaces, Multiple Axis Type Family
• Neighbour Co. Hong Kong SAR China “Tattour 2025 Identity” for Tattour in Lettering, Other
• Omnicom Chicago with Omnicom Production Chicago and Pes Motion Studio Chicago “Caption with Intention” for Rakish Entertainment in Communication Design, Motion, Closed Captions/Subtitles
• Shira Inbar New York with Ahmed Klink New York and Tom Van der Borght Ghent “Who Is The Sky?” — Album Art for David Byrne in Communication Design, Print, Packaging Design
• SMLXL New York with Mallandrich Barcelona “Spatial Festival 2025” for Spatial Festival in Communication Design, Motion, Animated Posters
• Studio Dumbar/DEPT Rotterdam with OpenAI Creative Studio San Francisco “OpenAI DevDay 2025” for OpenAI in Communication Design, Motion, Kinetic Typography
• Studio Dumbar/DEPT Rotterdam with OpenAI Creative Studio San Francisco “OpenAI DevDay 2025” for OpenAI in Communication Design, Other, Non-traditional Media
• Tarek Atrissi Design Barcelona “From Bauhaus to Mecca Exhibition Design” for The Design Museum Den Bosch, The Netherlands in Lettering, Environmental Design, Installation/Environmental Design
• The New York Times Magazine “Inside the Collapse of the F.D.A.” in Communication Design, Publication/Editorial, Book/Magazine Cover
• Underware The Hague “Herby, a holographic typeface” in Type Design, Text + Display Typefaces, Multiple Axis Type Family

TDC72 entrants with the most overall Type-High awards and Certificate of Merit wins were Studio Dumbar/DEPT Rotterdam with two Golds, two Silvers, and a Certificate of Merit, and SMLXL New York with one Gold, two Silvers, one Bronze, and a Certificate of Merit.

This year's esteemed global jury of leading professionals in the field from around the world awarded 13 Golds, 26 Silvers, 28 Bronzes, and 93 Certificates of Merit.  As per TDC competition tradition, the jury also made their personal TDC72 Judges Choice selections from among all of this year’s winners.  

TCD72 winners represented 40 countries and regions, led by the United States with 93, Mainland China with 23, Netherlands and Spain with nine each, and the United Kingdom with seven.

Along with receiving Type-High or Certificate of Merit awards, TCD72 winners receive a 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® (published in September), and showcased in a number of exhibitions that travel to museums, schools, and design organizations around the world. 

TDC72 winners are also part of The One Club for Creativity’s prestigious Global Creative Rankings, earning points alongside winners in The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Director Club of Europe (ADCE), and ONE Asia Creative Awards, to chart the world’s leading independent creatives, design firms, ad agencies, production companies, and brands.

Jury Presidents for the TDC72 competition were Lisa Smith, Global Chief Design Officer, Uncommon Creative Studio, New York for Communication Design; Mary Kate McDevitt, illustrator, hand-letterer, and designer based in Philadelphia for Lettering, and Aleksandra Samuļenkova, type designer based in Haarlem, for Type Design.

The complete showcase of TDC72 winners can be viewed here.