The idea is to pursue the limits of visual expression of letters in order to establish the world of "type directions", extending the scope of type design. With this clear intent, the Tokyo Type Directors Club(Tokyo TDC) was established on 18 December, 1987. Our activities include the yearly publication of our annual and the holding of exhibitions. As before, we invite entries from all the world for the "Tokyo Type Directors Club Annual Award 2008". Please send us artworks, which have deepened the concept of typography with new ideas, or any works that supersede the conventional.
Divisions
- Starting last year, TDC no longer distinguishes between members and non-members. Entries will be judged regardless of the artist's membership status.
We will, however, continue to introduce different rules for Japanese and foreign applicants regarding entry fees and the total number of works that can be entered.
- "Foreign applicants" means entrants who reside outside Japan. Foreign nationals who reside in Japan are regarded as "Japanese applicants. "
Eligibility, Entry works and Limit of Numbers
- No qualifications are needed. TDC requires Applicant must be Type Director of the work.
- Entries must be those of which were produced between September 2006 and the deadline.
- Especially in the category "Interactive design" and "Type-design" entries produced or appeared in the last 2 years are also accepted.
- Numbers of entry: As entries made from overseas are exempt from entry fees, no more than three entries per Applicant= Type Director are accepted. (Any number of applicants may enter from a studio/group/company etc. A series is treated as one entry.)
Categories
1) Small graphics
2) Editorial / Book design
3) Typedesign
4) Mark & Logotype / Corporate stationery
5) Signage & Display / Package design
6) Poster
7) Newspaper/ Magazine advertisement
8) Advertising campaign
9) Experimental work (not included in the standard categories)
10) Film/ Video work/ Motion logo/TV, Film title/ Animation etc.
11) Interactive design (Website/Mobile Site/Media Contents/ Installations etc.)
* The jurors in the Film/Video category and the Interactive design category, as with other categories, place an emphasis on the visual expression of letterforms, taking into account the characteristics of different media. "Visual expression" in this context includes not only typography, but also symbols, the rhythm of the piece, connections between people and letters or languages, and vocalization. We also recognize designs that enable good functionality or enable new relationships in the realm of communication.
* VJ and live installation shows can be entered in either the Film/ Video or Interactive design category (up to applicants' decision).
Entry Fees
- Entries made from foreign applicants are exempt from entry fees.
Jury
- Katsumi Asaba/ Au Tak-shing, Benny/ Kenjiro Harigai/ Kazunari Hattori/ Atsuki Kikuchi/ Hiroshi Iguchi/ Tsuguya Inoue/ Katsuya Ise/ Kaoru Kasai/ Issay Kitagawa/ Akira Kobayashi/ Gento Matsumoto/ Hideki Nakajima/ Masayoshi Nakajo/ Yugo Nakamura/ Kenjiro Sano/ Taku Satoh/ Yasuhiro Sawada/ Katsuhiko Shibuya/ Shin Sobue/Masami Takahashi/ Ryosuke Uehara/ John Warwicker
- Special juror for Japanese Typedesign: Jiro Katashio/ Hiroshi Komiyama
- Interactive Design Committee: John Maeda/ Casey Reas/ Hajime Tachibana/ Norio Nakamura/ Gento Matsumoto
* The juror whose work is nominated will not participate in the judging.
Prizes (Contents of TDC Awards)
- Grand Prix: 1 entry/ TDC Prize: 5 entries/ Typedesign Prize: 1 entry/ Book Design Prize:1 entry/ Interactive Design Prize: 1 entry/ TDC Special Prize: 1 entry
- "Prize Winning Work" means an entry selected for the above prizes
- "Excellent Work" means an entry except the above selected for appearance in the annual book.
- "Prize Nominee Work" means an entry selected for the prize shortlist but not win.
*
The certificates will be only given to the prize winners.
Prize Money
- Prize winning work entrants will receive prize money at the award ceremony in TDC exhibition, April 2008.
Grand Prix: JPY200,000/ Other Prizes: JPY100,000
Notification to Entrants
- Notification will be made to prize winning, prize nominee and excellent work entrants in January 2008 by e-mail.
Annual
- "Tokyo TDC, Vol.19-The Best in International Typography & Design" will be published in Autumn 2008.
Entry Rules
- Basically entries not observing the below rules are not considered. Any problems/questions with respect to entry work must be solved before application by sending e-mail to Tokyo TDC.
- All documents to submit must be completed with the required information in block letters.
- Entry in electronic media (e.g. CD-ROM) is acceptable only in category 10 and 11. Other entries must be an actual work itself.
* When selected for the exhibition, the submitted work is to be exhibited.
- "Newspaper & Magazine advertisement" entries must be mounted on paper board. Posters must not be mounted on panels.
- "Film/Video" entries must be recorded and submitted in VHS video or DVD video (NTSC format). When a work is longer than 5 minutes, the captured images which you like to show most must be attached.
- For Typedesign entries, both character sets and sample passages of text, which can be short or long, must be submitted. Entries are to be submitted as within B2(515 x 728mm) unmounted paper printout. The number of sheets does not matter.
- Explanatory drawings must be attached to poster series to describe their relation. Do not connect posters together.
- Package design entries must be emptied of its contents such as liquid, cosmetics etc.
- Works which should be seen on website must be applied by email with information 1~12 below. 1 to 3 captured color images which you think appeal entry most must be attached as JPEG format.
1. Applicant (Type Director) 2. Address 3. Phone and Fax 4. E-mail Address and Private URL 5. Occupation: Company/ School 6. URL of the entry 7. The pages in the above website which you would like to attract specially 8. Staff (up to 6) 9. Client 10. Copyright owner 11. A couple of lines of short explanation of the entry work 12. Operating system *Note special comment on such as platform, OS, browser, plug-in requirement, or technology used for production (Flash, Java etc.)
- Local web data and other interactive media contents must be applied by CD-ROM or DVD-ROM with two copies. Note recommended operation environment (system requirements). 2 sets of 1 to 3 captured color images which you think appeal most must be accompanied with.
- Mobile sites: Submit two copies each of a locally-viewable web site or a video for reference purposes.
- Installations and works that involve hardware: Submit two copies of either CD-ROM or DVD-ROM containing a video introducing your piece.
*Either Macintosh (OS X)or Windows (XP/VISTA) will be used at judging of Interactive design. All entries must be compatible with those operating systems.
*Entries will be judged on a display or screen, taking into account the characteristics of the work.
*Digital data will be required when "Film/Video" or "Interactive design" entry is selected for appearance in the annual book.
Reception and Deadline
- Interactive design entry must be received by Monday, 1 October 2007. All entries of other categories must be received by Monday, 15 October. Entries arriving after the deadline are not considered.
Exhibition
- Prize winning and prize nominee works will be exhibited at TDC exhibition. Excellent works that earn high marks will be also exhibited. TDC exhibition will be held in April 2008 at the ginza graphic gallery in Tokyo and in June at the ddd gallery in Osaka.
*Exhibition entries in other exhibitions not specified here is considered to be approved without permission.
Note
- No entries will be returned.
- Prize winning, prize nominee and excellent works will appear in the Tokyo TDC annual and presumably in other various media including website. Taking this into consideration, applicants must be responsible for all the conceivable issues of copyright. TDC takes no responsibility for copyright issues.
- Entries not observing the entry guidelines, which the jury con-siders inappropriate, and contravene the rights of others will be disqualified. TDC reserves the right to disqualify selected entries based on these conditions even after notification. When doubts to which the work conflicts with others' copyright arise after the annual book is issued, the applicant of the controversial work and the corresponding third person are responsible to solve the problem. Tokyo TDC takes no responsibility on this.
- Entries will be handled with utmost care, however, TDC will not be responsible for any loss or damage due to unavoidable accidents. If such accidents occur, the applicant might be asked to re-ship the same entry.
- Entries' layout in the annual is done in accordance with the editing format and policy of the TDC annual. We will not accommodate special requests from entrants.
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Entrants grant TDC the right to reproduce the images of entries for promotional purposes.
Shipping
- Entries should be sent to:
Tokyo Type Directors Club
Tohen Bldg. 701, 31 Daikyo-cho, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 160-0015, Japan
Phone: 81-3-5366-2256 Fax: 81-3-5269-6667

All packages must be shipped prepaid. Shipping fee must be paid by entrants. Please also note that Tokyo TDC will NOT pay Customs duties for you, so ensure to mark "MATERIAL FOR CONTEST ENTRY - NO COMMERCIAL VALUE" on the outside of each package and in the commercial invoice.
*If the submitted work comes in multiple packages, please number them as 1/2, 2/2 and so on.
For more information (E-mail or Fax)
- Tokyo Type Directors Club
e-mail: info@tdctokyo.org
Fax: 81-3-5269-6667
Entry Labels & List
Download the Entry Labels here, fill in the form and attach the back side of your entry work.
What you register online (Step 2. Online Registration) could be printed out as your Entry List, so that please enclose it with your entry.
In case you cannot register online, nor can you print out as instruction, download the form here, fill it in and enclose it with your work.

Entry Labels 2008
Entry List 2008