Typography gained a new awards hierarchy at this year’s edition of TDC72. Instead of all selected works stopping at the traditional Certificate of Merit recognition, the Type Directors Club awarded physical Type-High Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for the first time.
The first 13 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze trophies were presented at a ceremony and exhibition held at The Lighthouse in Brooklyn. More than 90 works also received a Certificate of Merit, a recognition that had already confirmed their place among the year’s best typography projects.
The new trophies were not introduced merely as a different way of ranking the works. Their name and design were created by Graham Clifford, a longtime TDC collaborator, life member and former chairman of the organization.
Three Works at the Top of Their Disciplines
Before the individual gold awards, TDC72 highlighted three works that were named the best in their respective disciplines.
In Communication Design, New York-based SMLXL and Barcelona-based Mallandrich won with “Spatial Festival 2025”, developed for Spatial Festival. The identity “Tattour 2025 Identity”, created by Hong Kong-based Neighbour Co. for Tattour, was named the best work in Lettering.
The highest recognition in Type Design went to “Momochidori Variable Font”, a work by the Tokyo team of Adobe, designed by Ryoko Nishizuka and Frank Grießhammer.
The three winners also demonstrate the breadth of contemporary typography. One project lives in animated posters, another in an identity, and the third in the very construction of a variable font.
The First Thirteen Gold Winners
- 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
Two Studios with the Most Honors
Studio Dumbar/DEPT and SMLXL finished the competition with five honors each.
Two gold awards for “OpenAI DevDay 2025” brought Studio Dumbar/DEPT a total of two golds, two silvers and one Certificate of Merit. SMLXL received one gold, two silvers, one bronze and one Certificate of Merit.
The international jury selected winners across all three disciplines, while its members, in keeping with the competition’s tradition, also chose their personal Judges Choice favorites from among the awarded works.
The jury president for Communication Design was Lisa Smith, Global Chief Design Officer at Uncommon Creative Studio in New York. The Lettering jury was chaired by Philadelphia-based illustrator, hand-lettering artist and designer Mary Kate McDevitt, while the Type Design jury was chaired by Haarlem-based type designer Aleksandra Samuļenkova.
From Brooklyn to Exhibitions Around the World
The winning works came from 40 countries and regions. The United States leads the list with 93 awarded works, followed by Mainland China with 23, the Netherlands and Spain with nine each, and the United Kingdom with seven.
The awards presented in Brooklyn are therefore not the end of the journey for these projects. The winners will receive a digital seal certifying that their work has been selected among the world’s best, while the projects will be published in September in the annual TDC Annual, The World’s Best Typography®.
The works will also be presented in traveling exhibitions at museums, schools and design organizations around the world.
The TDC72 results are also included in the Global Creative Rankings of The One Club for Creativity. The points earned are counted alongside results from The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe and ONE Asia Creative Awards, which are used to rank the world’s leading independent creatives, design studios, agencies, production companies and brands.
The complete overview of the winners has been published in the Type Directors Club’s online gallery.
