First-Ever Jury Presidents named for Global TDC71 Competition

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization, today announced three top creatives who will serve as Jury Presidents for the prestigious global TDC71 competition.

This year’s Jury Presidents are:

• Communication Design: Min Lew, managing partner, executive creative director, Base Design, New York
• Lettering: David Jon Walker, principal, Rhealistic, New Haven; associate professor of Art in Graphic Design, Yale University
• Type Design: Sahar Afshar, type designer and founding partner, Dogray Type Foundry, London

This year marks the first time in the competition’s more than seven decades of existence that Jury Presidents will be utilized.  Their role will be to lead judging for their discipline, guide discussion, and have a vote on the work. 

The full TDC71 jury will be announced shortly.  Across the three juries, the competition will have native experts for writing systems spanning Arabic, Cyrillic, Indic, CJK, and Thai, reflecting TDC’s commitment to have a greater number of the most appropriate experts judging work for which they have a deep knowledge.

Early bird deadline for entry is November 1, 2024, with entry fees increasing for the regular deadline of January 31, 2025, and final deadline on February 28, 2025.

To be eligible, work must have been produced or published in the 2024 calendar year.  Physical entries will once again be accepted, additional information is available on the entry website.

The TDC competition regularly receives entries from more than 60 countries.  To make TDC71 as accessible as possible on a global level, the organization is offering significant regional discounts on entry fees.  

Winners of TDC71 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. 

TDC71 winners are also part of The One Club’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, ad agencies, production companies, and brands.

Branding for this year’s competition was created by Paprika, based in Montréal, with fonts generously donated by Klim Type Foundry, in Wellington, NZ.

The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) awards, ONE Asia Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE Screen Short Film Festival, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community.  Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programming under the organization’s four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality, and Creative Development.