Morisawa Inc.(CEO: Akihiko Moriswa, Head Office: 2 Chome-6-25 Shikitsuhigashi, Naniwa Ward, Osaka, Contact Number +81 06-6649-2151) is pleased to announce the final result of Morisawa Type Design Competition 2019.
Morisawa Type Design Competition 2019 was held to seek the most updated, unique, and challenging typefaces with the juries who are representatives from various fields. The submission period was from November 1, 2018, to January 31, 2019. We received 813 entry works from 53 countries (258 works for Japanese category , 555 works for Latin category). This was the largest number of the entries since the first competition held in 2012.
The final review was held on May 15 and 16, at Morisawa head office. After the two days of intense evaluation, Gold prize, Silver prize, Bronze prize (one work each), and Honorable Mention (three works) were selected as Morisawa Award for both Kanji and Latin category. Judges were: Issay Kitagawa, Osamu Torinoumi, Ryoko Nishizuka, and Masaaki Hiromura for Kanji category; Ilya Ruderman, Indra Kupferschmid, Cyrus Highsmith and Laura Meseguer for Latin category; and Mathew Carter as the Emeritus jury.
The 1st and 2nd place of Peopleʼs Choice were elected by public voting. Unfortunately, no entries won the theme- based Akashi award his time. 16 winner works will receive each of Morisawa Awards and People’s Choice in total four categories. The portfolio book that includes all the winning works and the comments from the judges will be published this autumn. The award ceremony will be held at Kanda Myojin Hall (Tokyo) on September 3, 2019. We will keep updating the further information about the ceremony on our official competition website.
Winners and Entry Works
Kanji Category, Morisawa Award
Gold Prize
Hougetsu Kaisho by Yoko Kaku (Japan)
Silver Prize
NibuShibu by Daisuke Fukushi (Japan)
Bronze Prize
Ribaasu by Tien-Min Liao (Taiwan)
Honobale Mention
tr by Uchikiba Ganta (Japan)
Nijitako Tengoku by Mie Yokota (Japan)
Mimizuku by Shinji Shinkai (Japan)
Latin Category, Morisawa Award
Gold Prize
Areon Light / Italic Light / Regular / Italic Regular / Extrabold / Italic Extrabold
by Noheul Lee (South Korea)
Silver Prize
Kolektiv Light / Light Italic / Book / Book Italic / Medium / Bold
by Ondřej Báchor (Switzerland)
Bronze Prize
Easy by Théo Guillard (France)
Honorable Mention
Courbe by Olga Pankova (Russia)
ER Canto Text / Bold Text / Display / Bold Display / Display Italic
by Eduardo Garcia Rennó Pereira (Brazil, Portugal)
DR Kruk by Dmitry Rastvortsev (Ukraine)
The name and the ID of the finalists are as follows:
Kanji Category
J000021 Bin Ge
J000083 Natsumi Terauchi
J000166 Shun Takeuchi
J000194 Yuedong Shuai
J000217 Haoyu Pang
J000240 Aki Toyoshima
J000243 / J010243 / J020243 / J030243 / J040243 / J050243 / J060243 Hidemi Nanao
J000266 Mayuka Nanbu/Toshiyasu Nanbu
J000294 Miki Ooba
J000299 Shunsuke Miyakawa
J000309 Art Edge
J000395 / J000400 Wenqiang Cao
J000418 Tomoko Tezuka
J000474 Di Tao
Latin Category
L000127 Lewis McGuffie
L000248 Potch Auacherdkul
L000263 Ryuichi Tateno
L030275 Michelangelo Nigra
L000309 / L010309 Aaron Bell
L000356 / L000563 / L000564 / L000565 Zrinka Buljubasic
L000377 / L010377 / L020377 / L030377 / L040377 Mew Varissara Ophaswongse
L000403 / L010403 / L020403 Lucas Franco
L000465 André Baldinger & Toan Vu-Huu with Jimmy le Guennec Baldinger & Vu-Huu
L000469 Lucas Franco & Claudio Rocha
L000497 / L010497 / L020497 / L030497 / L040497 / L050497 Crt Mate
L000522 / L010522 Jonathan Cuervo
L000568 Timothy Donaldson
Kanji Category,People’s Choice
1st place
The Big Jaw by Fang-Ping Lin (Taiwan)
2nd place
Kanraku Mincho by Furantsu Sumi（Japan）
Latin Category, People’s Choice
1st place
Courbe by Olga Pankova (Russia)
2nd place
Apogee by Michael Aronson（United States of America）
Akashi Award
We had 28 entries for the theme of “Variable Fonts” from around the world. The entry works are in a wide range, from practical design to conceptual proposals. This theme-based style was our first attempt, and we sincerely appreciate those who participated in the competition.
We found many works with unique features, but they did not implement intermediate weights and were not reach the level to be evaluated as a variable font. There were some high-quality works, but then these were not new or progressive suggested in the competition’s guideline in terms of the numbers of axes or range of design. Therefore We decide not to select a winner for this award. We will continuously strive to improve. this competition active and to be a place to share and show new designs.
Award Ceremony
The award ceremony will be held at Kanda Myojin Hall (Tokyo) on September 3, 2019.
Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Location: Kanda Myojin Hall (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
Please note that you will need to apply to join the event. Details will be announced on our website (Please do NOT contact to the venue directly).