Tokyo Type Directors Club Exhibition Highlights from 2015 to 2017

In collaboration with AIGA Minnesota and Werner Design Werks, MCAD is proud to be featuring over one hundred award-winning projects by global leaders in type and graphic design to coincide with the AIGA Design Conference 2017, held in Minneapolis from October 12 to 14.

Begun in 1987, Tokyo Type Directors Club (Tokyo TDC) is one of the most prestigious organizations in the field of typography and graphic design. Since 1990 it has staged an annual international design competition, the Tokyo TDC Awards. This annual competition is a touchstone amongst the world’s leading art directors, designers, and typographic masters and is unique amongst its peers. It celebrates the spirit of typography and encourages and rewards experimentation into both form and language.

Throughout the years, the Tokyo TDC has awarded freshness and vitality and has constantly challenged what is thought of as typography and typo-graphics. All submitted works are assessed and selected by international judges and fifteen of Japan’s leading typographers and graphic designers. Each year there are over 3,000 entries from all over the world. Of these, 300 are chosen for the published annual, and of these, roughly one hundred—representing the best of the best—are selected for exhibition and shown at venues across the globe.

This show highlights some of the strongest work from three different exhibition years: 2015, 2016, and 2017. The pieces were selected by Sharon Werner of Werner Design Werks, Jon Forss of Non-Format, and MCAD Design Chair Erik Brandt. This is a rare opportunity to see original work by the world’s leading type designers on display in Minneapolis, ranging from posters, to character design and editorial/book design, to packaging and experimental work.