Morisawa Inc. is pleased to announce “Morisawa Type Design Competition 2019” calling for entries of original typefaces from across the world.

Morisawa Type Design Competition has been giving birth to new typeface designs for more than three decades from the first Morisawa Awards International Typeface Competition held in 1984. The last competition (2016) received more than 700 entries from 49 countries and regions, including both Kanji and Latin category. We are looking for works with new expressivity and full of challenging sprit from all over the world.

Morisawa Award calls for typeface designs with creativity and aesthetic excellence of designs for two categories, Kanji and Latin. Designers and experts who lead each field will join as new judge members and will evaluate entried works. People’s Choice Award will be chosen by the general public votes online.

Akashi Award used to call for entries for typeface to commercialize. We launch a new initiative and set a theme each time for entries. This time, the theme is “variable fonts” which is implemented in the OpenType specification. The judges will comprehensively evaluate whether your work is new or progressive as a variable font.

The submission period is November 1st, 2018 to January 31st, 2019. The result is planned to be announced in July 2019.

●Morisawa Award (Categories: Kanji and Latin)

Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a sub-prize money;

-Kanji Category

Gold Prize: JPY 1 million (1 work)
Silver Prize: JPY 500,000 (1 work)
Bronze prize: JPY 300,000 (1 work)
Honorable Mention: JPY 50,000 (3 works)

-Latin Category

Gold Prize: JPY 1 million (1 work)
Silver Prize: JPY 500,000 (1 work)
Bronze prize: JPY 300,000 (1 work)
Honorable Mention: JPY 50,000 (3 works)

●Peopleʼs Choice

Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a gift.

-Kanji Category

Highest number and 2nd highest number of votes (1 work each)

-Latin Category

Highest number and 2nd highest number of votes (1 work each)

●Akashi Award

The theme is “variable fonts”. Please see the entry guideline for more detail. Morisawa Inc. examine entried works.
Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a sub-prize money.

JPY 500,000 (Up to 3 works)

-Kanji Category
Issei Kitagawa / Osamu Torinoumi / Ryoko Nishizuka / Masaaki Hiromura

-Latin Category
Ilya Ruderman / Indra Kupferschmid / Cyrus Highsmith / Laura Meseguer

-The Emeritus Jury
Matthew Carter

November 1st, 2018 – January 31st, 2019(JST)

Download the application guideline (the dompetition enrty rules and the design format) in the official website.

No entry fee is charged.

July 2019 (as planned)

Organizer
Morisawa Inc.

Partner
Morisawa Bunken Inc.

Supporter
Arphic Technology co., LTD
Beijing Hanyi Keyin Information Technology Co., Ltd.
SANDOLL Communications Inc.
Type Network, LLC.

Contact Information

Office of the Morisawa Type Design Competition 2019
c/o Morisawa Inc.
2-27, Shimomiyabi-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0822, Japan
Tel. 03-3267-1233
Operation Hours: 9:00 to 12:00, 13:00 to 17:15,
Monday to Friday except bank holidays and Morisawa Inc. holidays