Wide-ranging group of typographic practitioners age 35 and under are recognized for their outstanding talent.
The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization, today announced the 35 talented winners from 14 countries in the Ascenders 2023 competition, celebrating typographers, lettering artists, and type designers age 35 and under.
Ascenders is the world’s premier portfolio-based competition dedicated to type in all its versatile forms, and the inspiring designers — individuals or duos — who are elevating the medium.
Ascenders 2023 winners are:
Maram Al Refaei, Archief, Cairo
Ximena Amaya, Los Angeles
Xing Chen and Li Xiang, Stone Design Lab, Beijing
Carlos Oliveras Colom, DonCarrrios, Fort Worth
Carlos Mignot Cordeiro, Plau, Niteroi (Brazil)
Cecilia del Castillo Daza, Barcelona
Julia Martinez Diana, Antipixel Type Studio, Buenos Aires
Fernanda Didini, The New York Times, New York
Elias Hanzer, Berlin
Jun Ki Hong, Base Design, New York
Hanna Karraby, Philadelphia
Heejae Kim, New York
Min Kim, US
Irina Koryagina, New York
Jérémy Landes, Studio Triple, Berlin
Beatriz Lozano, Brooklyn
Ruggero Magrì, Catania (Italy)
Fernando Marar, Nubank, São Paulo
MARTE (Martina Galarza), Brooklyn
Sabrina Nacmias and Maxime Gau, Faire Type, Brooklyn
Zin Nagao, Fukuoka (Japan)
Alex Nassour, Wieden+Kennedy, New York
Nubia Navarro, Nubikini Studio, Bogotá
Sean O’Connor, Mucca Design, Brooklyn
Seryozha Rasskazov, Typetension!, Lausanne (Switzerland)
Daan Rietbergen, Utrecht
Vojtěch Říha, Superior Type, Prague
Sanchit Sawaria, Brooklyn
Julie Soudanne, Jli Type Design, Paris
Yuan Wang, Auf Dich, Shanghai
Lin Xi, Linxi Design, Shenzhen
Simin Xu, Ningbo (China)
He Yuxuan, whynotdesign, Shenzhen
Rozi Zhu, New York
Zipeng Zhu, Dazzle Studio, Brooklyn
Entrants submitted curated portfolios of their top six projects alongside a short introduction to their practice, and were judged by an international jury of global leaders in the field, including a number of past Ascenders winners.
This group of 35 joins prominent past Ascenders winners include Au Chon Hin (Macao, 2022), Andrej & Andrej (Bratislava, 2022) Kevin Cantrell (Mantua, US, 2018), Fernanda Cozzi (Buenos Aires, 2019), Roxane Gataud (Brussels, 2022), Wael Morcos (New York, 2018), Gemma O’Brien (Sydney, 2022), Tré Seals (Washington, DC, 2018), and others.
First launched in 2018, the Ascenders competition was the idea of former TDC Advisory Board member Paul Carlos, principal at Pure+Applied, adjunct faculty, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, who remains active in the organization.
“While Ascenders was originally envisioned to celebrate those breaking into the field, it has very quickly become about recognizing those already leading, carrying our industry to new heights and aspirations,” said Ksenya Samarskaya, TDC managing director. “If you want to know what’s at the bleeding edge today, and what tomorrow is bound to look like, memorize these names.”
TDC, part of The One Club for Creativity, will host a public reception for the Ascenders 2023 winners on June 15, 2023, in the club’s gallery space in New York. Details and tickets are available here.
This year’s Ascenders branding is designed by Anıl Aykan at Barnbrook Design in London, a recent member of the TDC Advisory Board. The design depicts the “ascending” creatives by embracing the idea of growth and invasion, with the journey demonstrated by visual metaphors of steps toward further growth and expansion, and included accompanying audio from Fragile Self.