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Monotype Imaging Announces Winning Submissions from the Type Directors Club TDC2 2011 and TDC57 Competitions

Thursday 03. February 2011 - Elegy and Palatino Sans Arabic Typefaces and the Fonts in Focus 7 Magazine Among Honorees

Submissions from Monotype Imaging Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE) were recognized at the annual TDC2 2011 and TDC57 design competitions held by the Type Directors Club of New York City. Awards of design excellence went to the Elegy typeface from Monotype Imaging’s ITC collection, and the Palatino Sans Arabic design, from the company’s Linotype collection. The newest issue of Monotype Imaging’s Fonts in Focus magazine, Fonts in Focus 7, was honored for typographic excellence.
Monotype Imaging’s winning entries will be exhibited worldwide along with others beginning this summer as part of the TDC’s traveling exhibitions. The submissions will also be published in “Typography 32, the Annual of the Type Directors Club.”
“The TDC2 competition attracted the most impressive array of type designs to date. The jurors painstakingly analyzed dozens of entries — occasionally aided by the Non-Latin advisory board, coordinated by Maxim Zhukov and including non-Latin script experts from Russia, British Columbia, UK, Japan and the U.S.,” said Charles Nix, chairman of the board of the Type Directors Club.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized by one of the world’s most prestigious and longstanding series of typographic design competitions,” said Doug Shaw, president and chief executive officer at Monotype Imaging. “Our passion for type is strong throughout our company, in addition to typeface design talent. The TDC awards help to endorse these key strengths.”
Elegy
A Spencerian script, Elegy is a new typeface design by Jim Wasco, who researched the Spencerian form of ornamental penmanship, popular in America between 1850 and 1925. Elegy is also based on the original International Typeface Corporation logo, drawn by the legendary typeface designer, Ed Benguiat. Wasco, senior type designer at Monotype Imaging, undertook the Elegy design project with Benguiat’s nod. “I felt strongly that Ed’s handlettering of the ITC logo deserved to be captured as a complete typeface,” Wasco said.
As he set out to create an elegant typeface based on Spencerian script models, Wasco maintained some of the spontaneity and flowing attributes of the original logo by Benguiat, which gave Elegy a new, contemporary look.
Palatino Sans Arabic
Lebanese typeface designer Nadine Chahine collaborated on Palatino Sans Arabic with German typeface designer Hermann Zapf, who created the Palatino family more than a half century ago. In 2008, Chahine and Zapf received a TDC2 award for Palatino Arabic, a project that first brought the pair together collaboratively.
“To have the guidance of a type legend is simply beyond words,” said Chahine, who designs Arabic typefaces at Monotype Imaging’s Linotype subsidiary. “Professor Zapf is still active and passionate about type, and working with him is a great honor.” Among Zapf’s credits are some of the most widely used and timeless designs in the world, including the Optima and Zapfino typefaces, as well as the ITC Zapf Chancery and Zapf Dingbats designs.
Palatino Sans Arabic is a companion to both the Palatino Arabic and the Latin-based Palatino Sans designs. Palatino Sans Arabic has the same metrics and structure as Palatino Arabic but with softer curves and less contrast. Like Palatino Sans, the Arabic version can be used for both text and headlines. “It’s a friendly, soft-spoken typeface,” Chahine said.
Fonts in Focus
Published in German and English, Fonts in Focus is designed to provide informative and eye-catching articles and contributions on typography. The award-winning seventh edition adopts a new and contemporary layout to showcase recently released typefaces, in addition to illustrations and editorial write-ups. Magma Brand Design, a design studio based in Germany, shares in the TDC award for design excellence. “We’re committed to producing informative and typographically rich publications such as Fonts in Focus that creative professionals and type lovers will treasure,” said Frank Wildenberg, managing director at Linotype GmbH.
Availability
The Elegy and Palatino Sans Arabic fonts are available in the cross-platform OpenType format.