Type Directors Club

World's best typography

SE Studio designed the visual language for the 65th annual Type Directors Club competition, an international award celebrating the world's best typography. Inspired by specimens from global type foundries, the campaign honoured TDC's heritage colours while progressively evolving into more abstract, expressive territory across an eight-month social and motion-led rollout. The campaign produced the highest number of entries in TDC's history to that date.

iPad displaying a bright red poster with stylized text 'Enter Now' for the 65th Annual Type Directors Club Competition, against a black background.
Stack of three red books titled 'The World's Best Typography', 40th Annual of the Type Directors Club, featuring bold typography.
Four TDC65 Type Directors Club award certificates, each featuring oversized bold red and black typographic letterforms and numbers as poster designs, with judges' signatures and citation text at the top.

Inspired by the typefaces from all over the world.

The 65th TDC competition aimed to unite an international group of designers and typographers, and the judging panel consists of some of the most revered names in the world of graphic design and typography. The visual language was inspired by typeface specimens from global type foundries, celebrating TDC's rich history by using its core identity colours.

Open magazine spread showing "Meet the Judges" page listing names including Karin Fong, Leo Jung, Eddie Opara, and others in red and black type, alongside a portrait of Karin Fong smiling and holding a phone, wearing a colorful striped sweater and mustard trousers.
Type Directors Club award certificates featuring bold red and black typographic design, with signatures from Chairman Bobby C. Martin Jr. and President Paul Carlos, shown in two overlapping prints.

A progressive and identifiable social media campaign was conducted over eight months to encourage designers and agencies to enter the 65th TDC competition.

The campaign evolved visually, starting with core visuals and becoming more abstract and expressive while remaining recognisable as TDC. Emphasising social media and motion graphics, this campaign led to the most successful TDC competition to date, with the highest number of entries.

Open book showing the 40th Annual of the Type Directors Club — left page displays credits and table of contents; right page shows the book cover with bold geometric "40" in black and red with the subtitle "The World's Best Typography."