Type Directors Club Opens Call for 2021 Beatrice Warde and Superscript Scholarships

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organisation and now part of The One Club for Creativity, has opened the 2021 call for entries for its two annual scholarship programs. The TDC Beatrice Warde Scholarship recognises a female-identifying college student in their next-to-last year of undergraduate study whose work demonstrates exceptional talent, sophistication, and skill in the use of typography across current media. The $5,000 scholarship is open to students globally.

Now in its second year, the TDC Superscript Scholarship recognises BIPOC students studying type design at a US college or university. The $5,000 scholarship is awarded to an outstanding student currently in their junior year of college or first year of graduate or postgraduate school who demonstrates exceptional talent and promise in the design and creation of letterforms (typeface, lettering or calligraphy). 

In addition to the financial awards, the two winners receive a one-year TDC student membership, which includes a copy of the TDC Annual 'Typography 42', keepsakes and complimentary admission for all TDC events. Both scholarships have an entry deadline of February 26, 2021 and are sponsored by Monotype. 

“TDC works to amplify the power and influence of typography in the cultural landscape,” said Bobby C. Martin, Jr., founding partner, Champions Design, and TDC board member. “These two scholarships were created to bring more women and BIPOC designers into the field and thereby make it better."

TDC Beatrice Warde Scholarship

Beatrice Warde (1900-1969), a journalist, typographical scholar and communicator on typography, was its first female member of the TDC. She enthusiastically believed in the merits of education and championed them throughout her professional career with Monotype. Her office was an open door for any person interested in typography and numerous people in the initial stage of their careers began their education with a visit. 

The criteria for the TDC Beatrice Warde Scholarship extends across disciplines, including design criticism as well as type design and graphic design, since Beatrice was a writer and educator who became the promoter of the Monotype works. Just as she encouraged the best use of the technology of her time, students are encouraged to demonstrate the application of typography to all forms of digital as well as print media.

Entries will be judged by a committee made up of Gail Anderson, School of Visual Arts and Anderson Newton; Ralitsa Debrah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in South Africa; Deborah Gonet, Monotype; Shelley Gruendler, creator of TypeCamp who did a Ph.D on Beatrice Warde; Rathna Ramanathan, Royal College of Art; Fiona Ross, University of Reading educator and type designer; and Mariko Takagi, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.

TDC Superscript Scholarship

According to the 2019 Design Census, the design industry is only 3% Black, 5% Bi-racial and 8% Latinx, and those numbers are even lower in type design. The TDC Superscript Scholarship aims to do something about that, recognising BIPOC students studying type design at a US college or university. The scholarship exists to foster an understanding and appreciation of the significance of type and typography in the next generation of designers. 

The TDC Superscript scholarship jury includes Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, de Vicq design; Saki Mafundikwa, founder of ZIVA and author of Afrikan Alphabets; Nina Stössinger, Frere-Jones Type; David Jon Walker, Rhealistic, and Bobby C. Martin, Jr., Champions Design.

The scholarship will be applied to the selected student’s final-year tuition that begins in September 2021 and concludes in June 2022.