13th GRANSHAN Type Design Competition

The winners of the 13th GRANSHAN Type Design Competition have been announced.

Every two years, the competition recognizes exceptional typefaces from scripts beyond Latin. The awards ceremony, titled Common Characters: GRANSHAN Talks & Ceremony, took place on June 17th in Reading, where the GRANSHAN Foundation unveiled the winners. A panel of over 60 judges evaluated submissions across ten script categories through a rigorous three-stage process.

Ana Sanikidze, who completed her Masters in Typeface Design at the University of Reading three years ago, returned to receive the Grand Prize of 3,000 Euros for her typeface Adapter Georgian. She also received a second prize for Nocturno Georgian. Reflecting on her achievement, Ana expressed her delight: “It feels amazing, I’m still flabbergasted. I like the fact that I got the award in Reading, a place that still feels a bit like home to me.”

In addition to the grand prize, there were 9 first-place, 16 second-place, and 9 third-place winners, along with 24 Special Mentions.

Veronika Burian, chair of GRANSHAN, noted, “The competition’s standards have always been exceptionally high; only truly outstanding typeface developments receive awards.” This year, Toshi Omagari, serving as co-chair alongside Burian, highlighted Ana Sanikidze’s success: “The jury was impressed by how well Ana Sanikidze has translated the concept of a sans serif into a text font. Her typeface Adapter Georgian is modern, very legible, and adheres to the principles of Georgian proportions.”

The GRANSHAN Type Design Competition stands as the premier professional competition dedicated exclusively to non-Latin typefaces, including categories for non-Latin/Latin combinations and multiscript designs. New additions this year included a Georgian script group and an expanded Southeast Asian script group covering Burmese, Lao, Khmer, and Thai.

Special recognition was given to the Armenian Script Group, which received the 13th Edik Ghabuzyan Lifetime Achievement Award for Armenian Type Design. The competition facilitated free submissions for type designers, with entry fees sponsored by GRANSHAN.

At the conclusion of the Common Characters: GRANSHAN Talks & Ceremony, GRANSHAN President Boris Kochan announced plans to present the Lifetime Honor Medal to Edik Ghabuzyan at the Mesrop Mashtoz Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Armenia on September 7th. Additionally, a study trip to Armenia is scheduled from September 5th to 13th, organized by the GRANSHAN Foundation e.V. in collaboration with other institutions such as the Typographische Gesellschaft München (tgm).

Further details here.