Type Directors Club

Type Directors Club

Abbreviation	TDC
Founded	1946 (1946)
Type	Professional association
Location	Headquarters in New York City
Area served	Global
Key people	Executive Director: Carol Wahler, Managing Director: Ksenya Samarskaya
Website	tdc.org

The Type Directors Club (TDC) is the leading international organization whose purpose is to support excellence in typography, both in print and on-screen. With a solid historical background beginning in 1943, the TDC today represents the best of today's type design and type use.

TDC produces a design annual that features award-winning typography. The most recent, The World's Best Type and Typography, is designed by Leftloft of Milan.

History

Founded in 1946 by some of the industry's leading practitioners, the TDC's earliest membership included Aaron Burns, Will Burtin, Freeman Craw, Louis Dorfsman, Gene Federico, Edward M. Gottschall, Herb Lubalin, Edward Rondthaler, Bradbury Thompson, and Hermann Zapf. With this solid historical background, the TDC today represents and rewards the best of today's type design and type use. Founding member Milton Zudek described the club's goals at their first exhibit opening in 1947: “We simply want to make more and more advertising people aware of the importance of the agency typographer. We want them to realize that the selection of type for an advertisement demands a sixth sense that goes beyond the basic knowledge of typefaces—that it demands, in effect, the same kind of artistic sense that people have learned to associate with Art Directors, but are still learning to associate with Type Directors.” Speaking that same night, Paul Lang, a member of the Art Directors Club remarked, “When I began, artists were called layout men, renderers or finishers. When we insisted upon being called art directors, the advertising execs would say, ‘Call yourselves anything you like, but give us what we want.’ By the same token, if type directors keep calling themselves just that, they will, in time, be recognized for what they actually do contribute.”

Timeline

1943: The club was started as an unofficial gathering in 1943, by a group of “Mad” men from advertising agencies who began sharing typographic war stories over lunch. Founding member Milton Zudeck described the club’s goals: “We simply want to make more and more advertising people aware of the important of the agency typographer. We want them to realize that the selection of type for an advertisement demands a sixth sense that goes beyond the basic knowledge of typefaces.”

1946: The Type Directors Club organization was formed by several leading NY art directors, including Aaron Burns, Louis Dorfsman and Milton Zudeck.

1960: The TDC was composed of men for many years until 1960 when they recruited its first woman member, designer Beatrice Warde. Today, the Beatrice Warde Scholarship stands to commemorate Beatrice Warde and all her contributions to the field of typography and to the TDC.

1967: The TDC medal is the organizations most prestigious award dedicated to the artful craft of type and typography. As of 2022 there have been 34 medalists. in 1967 the first TDC medal was awarded to Hermann Zapf.

1987: The TDC’s first international conference Type 1987 was held in Manhattan, giving participants the opportunity to gather with “stars” from outside the US like Adrian Frutiger and Neville Brody.

2018: As part of a rebranding led by Debbie Millman, the TDC adopted the Type Drives Culture conference slogan. The same year, the club held the first Ascenders competition, aimed to promote the hottest designers under 35; and created a BIPOC scholarship, which was later renamed the Ade Hogue Scholarship.

2022: The TDC closed after a financial insolvent collided with the resignation of board member Juan Villanueva, who, in an open letter, called it a “racist organization”. Later that same year it merged with The Once Club for Creativity.

2022: Upon the TDC’s reopening, Ksenya Samarskaya was appointed as TDC Managing Director with a mission to make it more open, diverse, and culturally engaging.

October, 2022: The TDC helped to support Inscript, a type festival at the forefront of technological innovation, and in November, the TDC will host Ezhishin — a first-of-its-kind conference about Native North American typography.

Conferences

In 1955 the first TDC competition was held to recognize outstanding work in the profession. The TDC’s first international conference, Type 1987 was held in Manhattan, giving participants the opportunity to gather with “stars” from outside the US like Adrian Frutiger and Neville Brody. in 2018, as part of a rebranding led by Debbie Millman, the TDC adopted the “Type Drives Culture” conference slogan which remains at the heart of the TDCs annual conference which **[explores the ways typography is used to form and transform creative communities and the broader culture.

The most recent Type Drives Culture 22 conference held various sessions with the overarching theme “Type: The Next 75 Years”. Discussions encompassed what certain strategies suggest about how designers might navigate shifts in technology, communication, and social good. A latest edition to the conference, “Type:Seeing” provided visual walkthroughs of type by city. This year’s series featured Las Vegas, London, New York, Mumbai, and JalanJalan in Kuala Lumpur. Says Jon Key, principal at MorcosKey in New York, member of the TDC Advisory Board and conference co-chair: “Type Drives Culture raises questions pertinent to designers today. Can we inspire creatives to project into the next 75 years of design? How can we shift our perceptions of the future of design? And how can we move the industry into the future.”

Set to happen this November, is the first conference dedicated to Native North American type and typography, Ezhishin. Part of TDC’s ongoing Type Drives Culture conference series, Ezhishin is co-curated by Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Chippewas of Rama), a graphic designer, artist, photographer, and writer who specializes in working within Indigenous communities, and Ksenya Samarskaya, the recently appointed TDC managing director. This virtual event will foster dialogue between Native and non-Native typography communities with the intent to inform non-Native type designers about the unique cultural aspects and needs of Native North American communities.

One Club Merger

The One Club for Creativity (TOCC), the world’s foremost nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community, announced a merger agreement with the Type Directors Club in October of 2022. The move brought the TDC under TOCC umbrella, providing resources and infrastructure to broaden and grow its programming and placing new emphasis on promoting diversity and inclusion in the global typography community.

A note from the TDC past president, Elizabeth Carey Smith, writes: “The TDC simultaneously faced organizational and financial issues, and this merger offers the infrastructure for a fresh start so our Advisory Board can instead focus on what it's good at: promoting typographic excellence with an anti-racist commitment to broaden what our industry lauds,” said Smith. "We'll have the opportunity to bring in new voices and reach a greater audience, with the hopes of fostering the love of type in more diverse communities."

The move was a response to a tumultuous series of months for the TDC including a call to action from previous board member, Juan Villanueva, who wrote a letter accusing the TDC of being a racist organization in June of 2022. The TDC shut down until the merge in October of 2022.

Scholarships

Beatrice Warde Scholarship

The writer Beatrice Warde (1900–1969) was brilliant and groundbreaking—and she was also a typographic scholar and the first female member of the Type Directors Club. The annual scholarship honors female-identifying typographic creatives who are in their second-to-last year of undergraduate education, and “whose work demonstrates exceptional talent, sophistication and skill in the use of typography across current media.” Winners receive a $5,000 USD award as well as a free one-year student membership to the TDC, offering discounts and other opportunities for conferences and events.

Previous winners of the award include, Doha Kwon (2022) **Ximena Amaya (2021),** Tatiana Lopez (2020), Blossom Liu (2019), Anna Skoczeń (2018), Tasnima Tanzim (2017), Ania Wieluńska (2016), and Rebecca Bartola (2015).

Ade Hogue Scholarship

Formerly known as the Superscript scholarship, the Ade Hogue scholarship award honors BIPOC students studying type in the U.S. with a $5,000 award. Acknowledging the daunting industry data—that the design industry is composed of only 3% Black, 5% Biracial and 8% Latinx creatives, with even lower statistics in type design—the scholarship is open to juniors or first-year grad/post-grad students “who demonstrate exceptional talent and promise in the design and creation of letterforms (typeface, lettering or calligraphy).”

Previous winners of the award include Ana Robles (2022) and Sakinah Bell (2021)

Sponsors

The TDC is sponsored by A to A Studio Solutions, Adobe Typeset, Typeset Design Matters, Designer Journals, Facebook Analog Research Laboratory, Firebelly, Google, Glyphs, Monotype, Morisawa, Pandora, School of Visual Arts, SVA Masters in Banding, Type Network which help to support the following initiatives including,

- TDC Typography Annual

- Student scholarships

- Salons in NYC and other US cities

- Educational workshops - TDC Book Night

- TDC Competition Judges Night

- New York exhibitions at TDC

- International exhibitions of competition winners

- Special events

External links

• Official website
• TDC Annuals