From October 17th to November 18th, an exhibition of one of the most prestigious international typography competitions in the world, TDC69, is visiting Bulgaria.
Between October 17th and October 29th, the Museum of Humor and Satire is hosting the outstanding achievements in font design for the year 2023. From November 6th, the exhibition will be presented at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia.
The opening of the exhibition at the Museum of Humor and Satire is on October 17th at 5:30 PM. During the vernissage, Boril Karaivanov will introduce the guests to the trends in the field of font art.
About the Competition:
The Type Directors Club (TDC) competition and annual awards were launched in 1953. Today, it stands as one of the most prestigious and longest-running international competitions for typography and font design. Initially created exclusively for club members, it became public in 1956. Participants initially competed in a single discipline until 1996 when two categories emerged – communication design and font design. In 2023, Communication Design was renamed Typography, and for the first time, a third category, Lettering, was introduced. The jury comprises designers native to various writing systems worldwide, specializing in Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin, Han, Hindi, Thai, African scripts, and more.
In the 2023 competition, designers from 77 countries participated. The winners hail from 42 countries, with the top five in terms of awards being:
- 52 awards for the USA
- 24 awards for Germany
- 23 awards for China
- 11 awards for the Netherlands
- 9 awards for Ukraine
In addition to winners in each of the three disciplines, the jury selects one winner for each discipline, and every member has the opportunity to vote for an individual participant. All winners receive a “Certificate of Typographic Excellence” and are featured in the club’s annual publication, “The World’s Best Typography,” released each year. The publication is available for purchase, with club members receiving it for free.
About the Type Directors Club (TDC):
The Type Directors Club (TDC) was founded in 1946 in New York with several primary objectives:
- To build a community through public events and platforms.
- To support the growth of students and professionals at the beginning of their careers.
- To recognize achievements in font design worldwide.
Over the years, the club has initiated a series of events, some of which were groundbreaking in the history of contemporary graphic design:
- 1946: Annual meetings called “Ten Lectures” are held for club members.
- 1953: Annual awards are established, initially only for club members.
- 1956: Awards are opened to designers outside the club.
- 1958: The first international seminar is held, with over 500 designers from different countries participating.
- 1959: The first international conference is held.
- 1960: Designer Beatrice Warde becomes the club’s first female member, and an award for students is established in her name.
- 1967: German calligrapher and font designer Hermann Zapf receives the first medal for contributions to typography.
- 1980: The first annual winners’ yearbook is printed.
- 1996: The Font Design discipline is established in the competition.
- 2004: A commemorative edition of the yearbook, “Typography 25,” is published for the club’s 50th anniversary.
- 2010: The first certificate for postgraduate qualification is established and awarded in collaboration with Cooper Union.
- 2017: The 70th-anniversary celebration includes the conference “Typography Beyond Time.”
- 2018: The Typegeist project is launched, exploring the characteristics of different scripts worldwide. The first edition of the conference “Typography Moves Culture” is held and continues regularly in various parts of the world in the following years.
- 2020: The club joins The One Club for Creativity (OCC) network.