Morisawa Inc.(CEO: Akihiko Morisawa, 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: Issei 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.

Gold Prize

Hougetsu Kaisho by Yoko Kaku (Japan)

Silver Prize

NibuShibu by Daisuke Fukushi (Japan)

Bronze Prize

Ribaasu by Tien-Min Liao (Taiwan)

Honorable Mention

tr by Uchikiba Ganta (Japan)

Nijitako Tengoku by Mie Yokota (Japan)

Mimizuku by Shinji Shinkai (Japan)

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:

1st place

The Big Jaw by Fang-Ping Lin (Taiwan)

2nd place

Kanraku Mincho by Furantsu Sumi（Japan）

1st place

Courbe by Olga Pankova (Russia)

2nd place

Apogee by Michael Aronson（United States of America）

No applicable works

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.

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 )