Enter the world’s premier Typography and Typeface design competition

[hrant]

Losers don't like that fact advertised.

hhp

[Chris Dean]

Possible, but I’m thinking to myself, “I’m a young student, I didn’t win, but I still get to see my work in print…” That’s not entirely implausible.

[J.Montalbano]

Chris, Hrant

You should start you own competition and bring all your ideas to fruition.

Good luck to all the entrants. I'm done here.

[John Hudson]

Re. the Typography annual: I really wish there were an off-print version that contained only the winners of the type design competition. The books are thick, and mostly filled with graphic design work that is of no interest to me personally. I can't justify giving them bookshelf space, so donate most volumes to our local library, and send any containing my own work to my mother, the Hudson family archivist.

I'd really like to have a slim publication that just showed the winners of the type design competition each year, for which I would gladly find shelf space. Collectively, they would represent an important record of developing trends in type design over the past couple of decades.

[hrant]

I second that!

hhp

[5star]

Everyone should have one. I have seven cans of dehydrated quads and five boxes of smoked line-to's, in mine.

Once again I see that I am left with playing ketchup. Alrighty then....

Dear Santa,

All I want for this Christmas is a Typophile Bunker. In the center of the bunker I would like an aquarium stocked full with Rainbow Squids ...from which I could ask for my inks or course. And I would also like a small forest of Mulberry trees ...from which a could produce my paper. Songs birds that know every song ever (including all of James Brown hits) ...and I would also like to have a couple of the funniest lions as friends.

Thanks!

Milk and cookies await.

n.

[hrant]

FYI:
http://www.tdc.org/tdc-typeface-design-winners-2013/

Congrats to John, Tim and Frode!

Some questions:
- Will we get to see online samples?
- Was Brill substantially improved in 2012?
- For the Judge Choice selections, is it possible to find out who picked what? The TDC did include that info in previous years.
- Looking at #6: why would the KABK not commission one -or all- of its fabulous (I don't mean that at all sarcastically) type design teachers to make their typeface?

hhp

[John Hudson]

Was Brill substantially improved in 2012?

Improved over what? The official release date of the family was November 2012. Earlier, beta versions of the roman and italic were available, but the formal release wasn't until the bold weights were added, and timed to coincide with the beginning of Brill's 330th anniversary celebrations at the Boerhaave Museum, 9 November 2012.

[hrant]

I didn't realize all the previous versions were betas.

hhp

[John Hudson]

Brill started working with trial versions of the roman and italic in Summer 2011, but their CEO didn't want to make any official release until the bold and bold italic weights were finished (with which I had help from Alice Savoie last year). So the finalised EULA, official website, etc. were all prepared for the launch of the anniversary celebrations last November. Unusually for a typeface design, Brill gave the project a lot of publicity while it was in progress, in their company reports and at book fairs and conferences, so that might be why it seems to have been around longer. It's been a part of my life since 2008!

[PabloImpallari]

It's one of the very few fonts that works well both in big and small sizes.

[Jens Kutilek]

- Looking at #6: why would the KABK not commission one -or all- of its fabulous (I don't mean that at all sarcastically) type design teachers to make their typeface?

Dave Foster was a student of KABK. «Client: KABK» probably means he designed the typeface as a student project.

[hrant]

Ah (thanks).
Let me update the Clients section of my résumé then... ;-)

hhp

[dberlowgone]

[Punishing, postal, and ungracious all may look “normal” written here, but just to be clear, that is not the TDC way in my experience. In fact, I don’t know anyone who’s been involved either as entrant, winner, loser, adviser, caterer, participant, or judge, who share these terms in describing it or its competition. Thanks!]

[hrant]

From what I've seen the TDC -which must certainly be greater than any of its individual members- consistently does fabulous work, and I think we're very lucky to have this type design competition. FWIW over the years I've very rarely seen a winner that I for one thought didn't deserve it. But anyway if we all agreed on everything life would be dead.

That said, nobody/nothing is perfect, and to me it just seems to make sense to raise the entry fee by a few dollars to avoid charging the winners extra.

As an aside, to me it also makes sense to admit (at least to oneself) and thereby not defend (not even tacitly) the punishing, postal and ungracious behavior of a personal friend and/or someone with whom one merely shares a -perceived- antagonist.

hhp

[dberlowgone]

"But anyway if we all agreed on everything life would be dead."

Is that so? Subtracting the posts trolled in by the usual rebels-without-a-clue, folks who wanted answers came in, asked their questions, got responses and did their thing. I'd say "that's life".

[hrant]

Really, David? I'm not even allowed to say it's OK that people disagree?

And in turn you see nothing wrong with the way James has historically behaved, online in general and on Typophile in particular? Do you have zero space in your heart for even-handedness?

BTW if we assume that the TDC competition isn't perfect (since nothing is perfect) there's no way to know how it can be improved without engaging in discourse; you can never know who didn't get their answers, who ended up not submitting a worthy design. It's a classic delusion to accuse people who voice a complaint of being the only ones with that complaint. Specifically here I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who thinks charging the winners extra is a bad idea; I'm just the one of the few who sees value in bringing it up in public.

hhp

[John Hudson]

Hrant: BTW if we assume that the TDC competition isn't perfect ... there's no way to know how it can be improved without engaging in discourse

Its also worth pointing out that you -- and I, for that matter -- have no way to know everything that is involved in the reckoning of the TDC competition planning, finances, etc.. We don't know all the factors. We don't know what other options have been considered and rejected because they didn't add up.

As a winner, I find the hanging fee is a minor element of the overall cost: very minor compared to the cost of producing the required panels and getting them delivered to the TDC. That is the real financial hit for winners, and one that entrants had better be aware of when making a submission.

[hrant]

You're right that I/we don't know. Hence the usefulness of asking (and the value of transparency). For example two of my four points above have yet to be addressed, and there's no way I'm the only one wondering. Nobody should be very upset over unanswered questions in a case like this, but it remains a missed opportunity.

The hanging fee would be a minor/worthwhile expense for me too. And yes, entrants should be aware of it. But to me it still does more harm than good; it just seems mildly perverse to charge more to people whose work you think deserves recognition. So: is instead raising the entry fee by ~$8 worse or better?

BTW this isn't the biggest problem I see with this competition, it's just by far the easiest one to fix. You've mentioned something worthwhile too: publishing the TDC2 results separately. I hope they consider that idea seriously (and don't attack you for voicing it).

hhp

[dberlowgone]

"I'm just the one of the few who sees value in bringing it up in public."

[Special few]

So, chosen one, besides the unhidden hidden fee being less hidden, making the judges with whom you've rarely disagreed spend more time, charging everyone more to enter, and hoping for improved perceptions of TDC by yourself and others now that James is no longer helping so domineeringly with the contest, and even if you are not even a member, and just want to stir up unwarranted distrust and suspicion using your freedom in public... you should write to Carol, who I'm sure you know, because she might help you change things as a non-member type designer helping other non-member type designers more easily make up the rules to best help them enter this type design contest for the most benefit to themselves, and everyone else you represent. That is the "value" to which you refer, I hope.

[hrant]

I'm not special.

I don't want to stir up anything except improvement in type, and I think the TDC and its competition play a big role in that. For a smart guy you sure can't figure me out.

Even stupid people know that the most effective way to put pressure (even positive pressure) on organizations/people is to do it in public. And my opinions are just ideas out there, no matter who I am, and whether I'm a TDC member or not. Do you really believe that paying for membership makes people take you much more seriously? Do you take me seriously on the ATypI list? TDC membership isn't exactly the Scientology $100K requirement for going Level 2.

hhp

[dberlowgone]

"I'm not special."

Any other xp-based, bitmap lovin', monarchists (before they read this post), please stand up.

"I don't want to stir up anything except improvement in type, ..."

Well, you've been dealing your death chop insults in public to the TDC since the mid-90's? that's almost 15 years now... FWIW, BTW IMHO, that ain't workin'.

"...and I think the TDC and its competition play a big role in that."

It's a great contest, but "a big role" is a baguette. And if you cut that baguette into the same number of pieces there are excellent typeface made per year, there are not enough crumbs to go around, by a long shot. So, I disagree.

"Even stupid people know that the most effective way to put pressure (even positive pressure) on organizations/people is to do it in public."

There is a difference between public pressure, and public insults. Like, if you call me stupid in private, that's fine, I'd even welcome it. But when you say it in public, I tend take it more seriously. And if you really want to Effectively Pressure People in Public, you not only have to know what you're talking about, but you'd better be right.

"Do you really believe that paying for membership makes people take you much more seriously?"

Me? It doesn't matter. Read my post again, it was for you.

[John Hudson]

I'm bemused by the notion that comments in a Typophile thread constitute applying pressure on an organisation. It may sometimes be true. It may sometimes be like calling the patients in the asylum common room a lobbyist thinktank.

[printguru]

So bummed I missed this! Is it an annual competition?

[Thomas Phinney]

Yes.