TDC
Challenge
The Type Directors Club (TDC) is a 65-year-old organization that promotes excellence in Typography. The club tasked us with inspiring designers to enter its 60th International Typography Competition.
Solution
Our strategy, “Find the future of form,” represented the desire of both the TDC and the young competitors it was trying to attract. The TDC wants to discover and award only the most remarkable typographic expressions. Young designers yearn to create breakthrough work that rises above the fog of convention.
For our campaign, “A New Generation,” we built a bespoke software application that generated typographic expressions based on continually shifting influences of real-time data streams. A microsite let designers everywhere use this software to generate their own unique expressions. Our short documentary film enriched the campaign by asking design luminaries, “What happens when typography becomes conscious?” In total, “A New Generation” was a first-of-its-kind convergence of data visualization, context-aware computing, consumer co-creation, branded content, and physical computation.
Results
This campaign surpassed submission goals. The microsite earned 13,226 unique visits and an average engagement time of 9 minutes and 22 seconds. It also won a slew of awards including: AICP Next Award for digital innovation, Jay Chiat honors for “Global Strategy,” TDC61 Selection, Communication Arts, Print Design Annual, and 2 Effies.
Team
- Lee Maschmeyer
- Thomas Wilder
- Christopher McCaddon
- Brett Renfer
- Gabe Benzur