Monotype Recognized for Innovation in Type Design by Prestigious Organizations

Typefaces Designed by the Monotype Studio honored with Red Dot Award, Good Design Award, TDC65 Competition Certificate of Excellence and Art Directors Club Award 

WOBURN, Mass. – Monotype today announced that six of its typefaces were recently recognized for achievement and distinction in design and branding, including: Helvetica® Now (2019 Red Dot Award), Neue Frutiger® World (2019 Good Design Award), Neue Frutiger® (Good Design Long Life Design Award), FF Nort™ (2019 Art Directors Club Award), Hope Sans™ (2019 TDC65 Competition) and Pyk (2019 TDC Judge’s Choice Award, Student Typeface Design). These prestigious industry accolades reaffirm the Monotype Studio team’s excellence in helping the world’s leading brands define, design and express their voices through type.

“The Monotype Studio continues to play a significant role in creating the most iconic and talked about type designs,” said Deborah Gonet, Monotype’s Vice President of Type. “By collaborating with creatives across the globe to understand specific branding and market requirements, we’re able to create impactful and innovative designs that help brands create a unique voice. We’re grateful to each of these esteemed organizations for giving us another platform to elevate our work, reinforcing the importance of great design.”

Each of these awards programs is regarded throughout the industry as setting the benchmark for distinction in type and design. Monotype is proud to have been selected for the honors described below: 

Helvetica® Now – 2019 Red Dot Award (Best of the Best)

The Red Dot Award is an international design competition for product design, communication design and design concepts. The “Red Dot” has become established worldwide as one of the most sought-after seals of quality for good design.

“The Helvetica typeface is a true icon, and to revise it to make it fit for contemporary and future use is a highly respectable endeavor. With a myriad of new and alternate letters, sizes and styles, the result has emerged as a convincing realization that manages the balancing act of lending the well-known classic an immediately recognizable modern touch.” — Jury statement. 

Neue Frutiger® World – 2019 Good Design “Best 100” Award

The Good Design Award is a movement aimed at enriching lives and society through design. Since its founding in 1957, it has been commonly seen alongside the “G Mark,” the symbol of winning the award. Whether tangible or intangible, as long as a design is created to fulfill certain ideals or purposes, the Good Design Award evaluates and honors its quality.

This year, Monotype’s Neue Frutiger World font is a Good Design Award winner. Designed by Adrian Frutiger, the font is comprised of easily legible letters and has been developed to support more than 150 languages all over the world. It has the potential to change a variety of scenery in everyday lives. It embodies the same functional, legible and warm fonts, but allows brands to maintain their visual identity, and communicate with a consistent tone of voice, regardless of the language.

“With easily legible letters, this font has been developed to support more than 150 languages all over the world. I believe it has the potential to change a variety of scenery in our lives. The introduction of Neue Frutiger World is such a delight for us designers.” – Good Design Award Anonymous judge’s evaluation. 

Neue Frutiger® – 2019 Good Design Long Life Design Award

The Long Life Design Award honors designs that will become the cornerstone of living and society. Winners are selected based on recognition that they will continue to play an important role in the future of design and have the power to continue to be a standard despite cultural and design shifts that occur over time.

Neue Frutiger is the 2009 version of the Frutiger typeface family. It was revised and improved by Akira Kobayashi in close collaboration with Adrian Frutiger, returning it to the original design. The result is a well-balanced range of 10 finely-graded weights. Its forms are designed so that each individual character is quickly and easily recognized, making it good for signage and display work.

FF Nort™ – 2019 Art Directors Club (ADC) Award 

Now in its 99th year, the ADC Annual Awards is the oldest continuously running industry award show in the world. Sponsored by the One Club for Creativity, these awards honor the very best in advertising, design, illustration, photography, packaging, motion and digital media, all with a focus on craftsmanship and innovation.

In the 2019 ADC Awards, Monotype’s FF Nort™ earned the bronze cube for Typography. Designed by Jörg Hemker, the inspiration for FF Nort came from Transport, the classic typeface designed for Britain’s highway signage. Equally at home in long-form text copy or billboard size headlines, FF Nort has all the design attributes that make for an exceptionally versatile print and web typeface. There is also a handcrafted neo-grotesque quality to the design, giving the font a friendly mien and separating it from other industrial strength sans serif typefaces.

Hope Sans™ – 2019 TDC65 Competition

The Annual TDC Typeface Design Competition recognizes excellence in typography, both in print and on screen. Winners are selected from both professional and student typeface design entries from around the world.

Hope Sans, designed by Monotype Type Director Charles Nix, has been selected by the judges of the 22nd Annual TDC Typeface Design Competition to receive the Certificate of Typographic Excellence, and shown at the 65th Awards Exhibition (TDC65) in New York City. Nix took cues from a wave of more relaxed grotesques that appeared in Madison Avenue advertising, giving the letters what he calls a ‘relaxed draping,’ lending a little more softness and grace than some of the more rigid grotesque counterparts. Hope Sans’ large counters and open spacing means it can work effortlessly across a range of environments—including digital, print, text, headlines, editorial, advertising, and branding—and for any use designers can imagine for its enormous set of swashes.

Pyk – 2019 TDC Judge’s Choice Award, Student Typeface Design 

The 2019 Typeface Design Judge’s Choice was awarded to Erica Carras, type designer at Monotype, for her student typeface design: Pyk. Inspired by Helmut Salden’s brush lettering, Pyk marries a running hand system of calligraphy into an upright text face producing unconventional letter shapes. With low contrast, uniform letter widths and generous spacing, Pyk increases its legibility and stands between calligraphy and type design.

“When considering student work, you’re looking at what’s directly in front of you but also hoping to get a peek into their future. Pyk is an accomplished piece of design. It manages to be quirky, energetic, and full of character without sacrificing the harmony that must be maintained for a well-functioning typeface. With its unusual angular shapes, this is no small feat. Step back and you’ll see a designer developing their voice, choosing an uncommon path. If Pyk is indicative of Erica’s future, then we’d be lucky to see more.” — Comment from typeface design judge, Nicole Dotin. 

About Monotype 

Monotype empowers creative minds to build and express authentic brands through design, technology and expertise. Further information is available at www.monotype.com. Follow Monotype on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Monotype is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2019 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved. 

Public Relations:
Amy Aylward
Monotype
[email protected]
Alyssa Niemiec
Havas Formula for Monotype
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