Type Directors Club Announces 35 Ascenders 2023 Winners from 14 Countries

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organisation, today announced the 35 talented winners from 14 countries in the Ascenders 2023 competition, celebrating typographers, lettering artists, and type designers aged 35 and under.

Ascenders is the world’s premier portfolio-based competition dedicated to type in all its versatile forms, and the inspiring designers — individuals or duos — who are elevating the medium. 

Ascenders 2023 winners are:

Maram Al Refaei, Archief, Cairo

Ximena Amaya, Los Angeles

Xing Chen and Li Xiang, Stone Design Lab, Beijing 

Carlos Oliveras Colom, DonCarrrlos, Fort Worth

Carlos Mignot Cordeiro, Plau, Niteroi (Brazil)

Cecilia del Castillo Daza, Barcelona

Julia Martinez Diana, Antipixel Type Studio, Buenos Aires

Fernanda Didini, The New York Times, New York

Elias Hanzer, Berlin

Jun Ki Hong, Base Design, New York

Hanna Karraby, Philadelphia

Heejae Kim, New York

Min Kim, US

Irina Koryagina, New York

Jérémy Landes, Studio Triple, Berlin

Beatriz Lozano, Brooklyn

Ruggero Magrì, Catania (Italy)

Fernando Marar, Nubank, São Paulo

MARTE (Martina Galarza), Brooklyn

Sabrina Nacmias and Maxime Gau, Faire Type, Brooklyn

Zin Nagao, Fukuoka (Japan)

Alex Nassour, Wieden+Kennedy, New York

Nubia Navarro, Nubikini Studio, Bogotá

Sean O’Connor, Mucca Design, Brooklyn

Seryozha Rasskazov, Typetension!, Lausanne (Switzerland) 

Daan Rietbergen, Utrecht

Vojtěch Říha, Superior Type, Prague

Sanchit Sawaria, Brooklyn

Julie Soudanne, Jli Type Design, Paris

Yuan Wang, Auf Dich, Shanghai

Lin Xi, Linxi Design, Shenzhen

Simin Xu, Ningbo (China)

He Yuxuan, whynotdesign, Shenzhen 

Rozi Zhu, New York

Zipeng Zhu, Dazzle Studio, Brooklyn

Entrants submitted curated portfolios of their top six projects alongside a short introduction to their practice, and were judged by an international jury of global leaders in the field, including a number of past Ascenders winners.

This group of 35 joins prominent past Ascenders winners include Au Chon Hin (Macao, 2022), Andrej & Andrej (Bratislava, 2022) Kevin Cantrell (Mantua, US, 2018), Fernanda Cozzi (Buenos Aires, 2019), Roxane Gataud (Brussels, 2022), Wael Morcos (New York, 2018), Gemma O’Brien (Sydney, 2022), Tré Seals (Washington, DC, 2018), and others. 

First launched in 2018, the Ascenders competition was the idea of former TDC Advisory Board member Paul Carlos, principal at Pure+Applied, adjunct faculty, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, who remains active in the organisation.

“While Ascenders was originally envisioned to celebrate those breaking into the field, it has very quickly become about recognising those already leading, carrying our industry to new heights and aspirations,” said Ksenya Samarskaya, TDC managing director.  “If you want to know what’s at the bleeding edge today, and what tomorrow is bound to look like, memorise these names.” 

TDC, part of The One Club for Creativity, will host a public reception for the Ascenders 2023 winners on June 15, 2023, in the club’s gallery space in New York.  Details and tickets are available here.

This year’s Ascenders branding is designed by Anıl Aykan at Barnbrook Design in London, a recent member of the TDC Advisory Board.  The design depicts the “ascending” creatives by embracing the idea of growth and invasion, with the journey demonstrated by visual metaphors of steps toward further growth and expansion, and included accompanying audio from Fragile Self. 

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 organisation 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 organisation’s four pillars: Education, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality, and Creative Development.