Type Directors Club Announces 15 New Advisory Board Members from 10 Countries

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization, has expanded the geographic and cultural diversity of its esteemed Advisory Board with the appointment of 15 new members from 10 countries, increasing the total number from 15 to 23 this year.

Starting two-year terms earlier this year, the new members of the volunteer Advisory Board are:

- Au Chon Hin, founder, Untitled Macao, Macao

- Maram Al Refaei, visual communication, designer, researcher, Archief Cairo Studio, Cairo

- Parasto Backman founder, designer, Studio Parasto Backman, senior lecturer, Konstfack University of Arts Crafts and Design, Stockholm

- Valentina Casali, letterer and graphic designer, Sunday Büro, Jesi (AN) (Italy)

- Marta Cerdà Alimbau, graphic designer, Barcelona

- Jolene Delisle, flounder, head of creative, The Working Assembly, New York

- Sandra García Saldarriaga, creative director, Tipastype, Mexico City

- Elizabeth Goodspeed, designer, art director, Providence

- Caren Litherland, content designer, New York

- Eric Q. Liu, typographer, editor, podcaster, writer, The Type, Tokyo

- Lloyd Osborne, founder, creative director, Osborne Shiwan, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland

- Shabnam Shiwan, partner, creative director, Osborne Shiwan, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland

- Bobby Joe Smith III, web developer, graphic designer, media artist, educator, Los Angeles

- Rob Stenson, cofounder, art director, Goodhertz; founder, Coldtype, Los Angeles

- Huston Wilson, director, Hust Wilson Ltd., Johannesburg

- Continuing their terms on the TDC Advisory Board are:

- Maria Doreuli, president, creative director, Contrast Foundry, Sunnyvale CA

- Manija Emran, founder, creative director, Me & the Bootmaker, Los Angeles

- Kimya Ghandi, type designer, Mota Italic, Berlin

- Kara Gordon, type designer, Commercial Type, New York

- John Kudos, managing partner, KUDOS Design Collaboratory, KASA Collective, New York

- Sol Matas, independent type designer, Berlin

- Chris Sergio, vice president, group creative director, Henry Holt & Co/Macmillan Publishers, New York (also represents TDC on The One Club’s Board of Directors)

- Trisha Tan, design director, Frog, New York

Rounding out the TDC team are Carol Wahler in her long-standing role as TDC executive director, and Ksenya Samarskaya, as managing director.  

”It’s incredible working with such passionate individuals,” said Samarskaya. “I’m super excited that the Advisory Board, for the first time, truly showcases global representation, with prismatic views and opinions on our industry and the world at large.“

“Being a member of the TDC Advisory board is truly an honor," said new Advisory Board member Huston Wilson, based in Johannesburg. “I hope to grow the typography culture in South Africa, and with the support and love from TDC, I know it's possible.”

Established in New York in 1946, TDC is a global organization celebrating the power of typography. The club serves an international community united by the shared belief that type drives culture, and culture drives type. 

Now part of The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support the global creative community, TDC is run as an autonomous organisation. The TDC Advisory Board serves to ideate, provide feedback, keep the organization relevant, and connect to different communities.

The Advisory Board also ensures consistent application and continuation of TDC’s anti-racist pledge, which involves proactively seeking women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ designers to become members, awards program judges, event speakers, and Board members, as well as providing them with ways to showcase their work to the global community.  

The organization runs the prestigious TDC competition, publishes The World’s Best Typography annual of TDC competition winners, coordinates annual traveling global exhibitions of award-winning work, holds Ascenders to recognize rising designers, offers Beatrice Warde, Adé Hogue and Ezhishin scholarship programs, produces the Type Drives Culture conference series, and hosts numerous talks, panels and workshops throughout the year.

The TDC69 competition is now open for entries.  Previously divided into two competitions, one each for Communications Design and Typeface Design, the program is now a single competition under this year’s TDC69 umbrella, consisting of three disciplines: Type Design, Typography, and, for the first time, Lettering. Final deadline for entry is March 3, 2023.

The One Club for Creativity, producer of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, ONE Asia Creative Awards, Type Directors Club competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, 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.