Announcing protoType – a curated competition & exhibition

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

SOTA has launched protoType, a competition and forthcoming TypeCon exhibition of speculative typeface design.

prototype.typegallery.com

See the full rules. Highlights:
• No eligibility timeframe. Even historical designs may be submitted.
• Free to enter. No material prizes, just near-eternal fame & glory.
• Notable jury (except for that one guy) with non-Latin expertise.
• Deadline: July 3.

Any questions or comments welcome.

Recent and related: a FontStand article & a Typographica follow-up.

Good luck!

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Less than two weeks left to submit!

Nick Shinn

Working on it.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

This Sunday is the submission deadline!
http://www.typecon.com/archives/5011
Find your inner alien.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

A quick Thank You to all who submitted.

We received over 300 entries from more than 200 parties, in quite a few writing systems.

Now the jurors are foraging deep into the luscious jungle...

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

One more stat and some inside info, for the curious:

We received entries in over a dozen writing systems. The jury can handle most of them, but for four writing systems we needed help. We're fortunate to get that help from the following experts: Erin McLaughlin, Krista Radoeva, Meir Sadan and Panos Vassiliou.

Russell McGorman

I'm looking forward to hearing about the results. Where and when will they be posted? 

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

I have now recovered enough from TypeCon :-) to post this:
http://prototype.typegallery.com/prototype-results/
The ones that don't have links soon will.

And here's a pertinent excerpt from the exhibition text:
We were delighted to receive 304 entries, although of course numerous other worthy designs were simply not submitted. The jury spent an entire month considering and discussing the merits of all the entries. In the end only around 20 entries could be accepted into the exhibition (7% of those submitted). We feel they jointly provide an exceptional view of the innovative spirit of our field.

I'm very grateful to SOTA for having accepted my protoType proposal, and doing everything possible to make it as good as it could have been. Alex Gilbert thankfully volunteered to help and did much more than help; he was basically the infrastructure that made protoType at all possible. And Delve Withrington, who was already over-committed not only gave us wise advice but made sure the exhibit was its best self.

BTW if I get my way, this exhibition was just the beginning... :-)

Nick Shinn

Interesting stuff! At least three of the selections go beyond type design per se into configuring new alphabetic scripts.

Nick Shinn

More links please, I’d like to see all selections. (Having missed TypeCon.)
Here’s mine: http://shinntype.com/typefaces/neology/

Jürgen Weltin

Here’s my link, Hrant. Thanks!
http://www.typematters.de/JuliusRoman/Julius Roman

Maurice Meilleur

Hrant, sorry for the delayed response. I'll work on a link this week. Are there plans for further exhibition?

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

There are... various plans.  :-)