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GRANSHAN

13th GRANSHAN Competition

Submissions are closed—results have been announced on the 17th June.

Specifics

GRAN­SHAN celeb­rates the diversity and rich­ness of typo­graphic scripts that under­pin global commu­nic­a­tion, empower communit­ies and enable iden­tity.

The GRAN­SHAN type compet­i­tion expli­citly seeks to recog­nise the most notable typefaces for indi­vidual scripts other than Latin, as well as multiscript famil­ies.

Type design­ers, type foundries and clients with custom typefaces from all parts of the world are invited to take part. All typefaces designed or digit­ised in or after 2020 in compli­ance with the require­ments of the compet­i­tion are eligible for submis­sion.

The Script Groups

  • Arabic
    Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Urdu
  • Edik Ghabuzyan Lifetime Achievement Award for Armenian Type Design
  • Chinese
    traditional or simplified
  • Cyrillic
    Bulgarian, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, etc.
  • NEW
    Georgian
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Korean
  • South Asian Scripts
    Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam, Sinhala, etc.
  • NEW
    South East Asian Scripts
    Thai, Burmese, Laos, Khmer

Competition Chairpersons

The Chair­per­sons of the GRAN­SHAN compet­i­tion, Veronika Burian and Toshi Omagari, are respons­ible for the appoint­ment of the Script Chairs and for moder­at­ing the compet­i­tion as non-voting Chair­per­sons.

Veronika Burian
Toshi Omagari

Script Chairs

Each Script Group is moder­ated by a so-called Script Chair. To ensure continu­ity in the eval­u­ation over the years, the Script Chairs are desig­nated for several years. The Script Special­ists are chosen collect­ively by the Script Chairs together with the Chair­per­sons.

Shani Avni
Hebrew script chair
Kalapi Gajjar-Bordawekar
South Asian Scripts script chair
Prof. Nino Jishkariani
Georgian script chair
Haytham Nawar
Arabic script chair
Eunyou Noh
Korean script chair
Angela Poghosova
Edik Ghabuzyan Lifetime Achievement Award for Armenian Type Design script chair
Rathna Ramanathan
South Asian Scripts script chair
Irene Vlachou
Greek script chair
Anuthin Wongsunkakon
South East Asian Scripts script chair
Dr Liu Zhao
Chinese script chair

Script Specialists

Arabic

Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Urdu

Dr. Huda AbiFarès
Lara Assouad
Lara Captan
Kamal Mansour
Titus Nemeth

Armenian

"Edik Ghabuzyan Lifetime Achievement Award for Armenian Type Design"

Davit Ghazaryan
Hrachuhi (Hri) Grigorian
Liana Shushanyan

With great respect, we would like to thank Edik Ghabuzyan on the occasion of his retirement for his unique contribution to the Armenian type design and the establishment of GRANSHAN. In the 13th GRANSHAN Type Design Competition 2023/2024, the Armenian script group will receive the "Edik Ghabuzyan Lifetime Achievement Award for Armenian Type Design". In this script group, the submission costs are borne by GRANSHAN itself and competing is therefore free of charge for submitters. In order to celebrate Edik Ghabuzyan and the Armenian type design in particular, submissions will only be accepted in the A1/A2 category for text and display typefaces, which focuses on Armenian type design.

Chinese

Traditional or simplified

Curt Huang
Keith Tam
Wang Wen
Cheng Xunchang
Ma Yiyuan

Cyrillic

Vedran Erakovic
Vera Evstafieva
Tetiana Ivanenko
Krista Radoeva

Georgian

NEW

Merab Getsadze
Lasha Giorgadze
Giga Khatiashvili
Sophio Kvantaliani

Greek

Kostas Bartsokas
Eleni Beveratou
Gerry Leonidas
Natalia Qadreh
Emilios Theofanous
George Triantafyllakos
Panos Vassiliou

Hebrew

Nitzan Chelouche
Daniel Grumer
Meir Sadan
Liron Lavi Turkenich

Korean

Minjoo Ham
Chang Sik Kim
Bon Min
Yanghee Ryu

South Asian Scripts

John Hudson
Neelakash Kshetrimayum
Shiva Nallaperumal
Fiona Ross
Sumanthri Samarawickrama
More to come

Southeast Asian Scripts

NEW

Suppakit Chalermlarp
Sirin Gunkloy
Tristan Hinkel
Jinda Nuangjumnong
Fiona Ross
Sovichet Tep
Panuwat Usakulwattana
Sasikarn Vongin

Competition Categories

Submissions are possible in three main categories – A (for non-Latin typefaces), B (for non-Latin/Latin typefaces) and C (for multiscript typefaces). Every category has their own sub-categories for text and for display typefaces. In this way, entries are possible in six categories to account for the wide range of multilingual typeface projects:

Category A1: Text Typefaces
This category is reserved exclusively for text typefaces in one or more of the script groups listed above, without Latin complements. Note that, in this category, display typefaces shall not be accepted.

Category A2: Display Typefaces
This category is reserved exclusively for display typefaces in one or more of the script groups listed above, without Latin complements. Note that text typefaces are not accepted in this category.

Category B1: Text Typefaces with a Latin complement
This category is designated for text typefaces with a Latin complement to be used in combination. This can be a pairing with both scripts developed at the same time, or one of the two scripts newly developed. In the case of a newly developed Latin complement, the quality of the Latin will also be evaluated along with the quality of the text typeface. In any case, the interaction between the two scripts will be rated. Typefaces from the nine script groups listed above can be submitted. Note that display typefaces are not accepted in this category.

Category B2: Display Typefaces with a Latin complement
This category is designated for display typefaces with a Latin complement to be used in combination. This can be a pairing with both scripts developed at the same time, or one of the two scripts newly developed. In the case of a newly developed Latin complement, the quality of the Latin will also be evaluated along with the quality of the display typeface. In any case, the interaction between the two scripts will be rated. Typefaces from the nine script groups listed above can be submitted. Note that text typefaces are not accepted in this category.

Category C1: Multiscript Text Typefaces
This category is reserved for text typefaces with at least two script complements beyond Latin intended to work together. An accompanying Latin version shall be accepted but is not required. Display typefaces are not accepted in this category.

Category C2: Multiscript Display Typefaces
This category is reserved for display typefaces with at least two script complements beyond Latin intended to work together. An accompanying Latin version shall be accepted but is not required. Text typefaces are not accepted in this category.

Fees

Your regis­tra­tion in the submis­sion tool as well as the creation of drafts are free of charge. Submis­sions are subject to a fee from the time the submis­sion is completed. After that, submis­sions cannot be cancelled or refun­ded.

The fees outlined in the table are set as a minimum. Any addi­tional higher payment on a volun­tary basis would be very welcome.

Fees include VAT. For the first time, payment can now be made directly in the submis­sion tool via Stripe (credit cards, PayPal and others).

Small and medium-sized compan­ies

Small and medium-sized compan­ies with less than 20 employ­ees and/or collab­or­at­ors.

A1 & A2

Non-Latin

Text or display typefaces

50.00 €

or $ 59.00

B1 & B2

Non-Latin/Latin

Text or display typefaces

75.00 €

or $ 87.00

C1 & C2

Multiscript

Text or display typefaces

100.00 €

or $ 117.00

Bigger compan­ies

Compan­ies with 20 or more employ­ees and/or collab­or­at­ors

A1 & A2

Non-Latin

Text or display typefaces

100.00 €

or $ 117.00

B1 & B2

Non-Latin/Latin

Text or display typefaces

125.00 €

or $ 146.00

C1 & C2

Multiscript

Text or display typefaces

150.00 €

or $ 175.00

Students, freel­an­cers, low-income coun­tries

Special rates for students, freel­an­cers and resid­ents of low-income coun­tries.

A1 & A2

Non-Latin

Text or display typefaces

25.00 €

or $ 29.00

B1 & B2

Non-Latin/Latin

Text or display typefaces

50.00 €

or $ 59.00

C1 & C2

Multiscript

Text or display typefaces

75.00 €

or $ 87.00

Evaluation Procedure

In order to create a trans­par­ent and fair eval­u­ation system, we have estab­lished a three-level proced­ure:
A long­list, where all anonymised entries will be eval­u­ated by the Script Special­ists with an online scoring system plus personal comments from the experts. Entries with a minimum score will make it onto the short­l­ist. The Script Special­ists will discuss the submis­sions in an online video confer­ence. After the discus­sion, each Script Special­ist and the Script Chair will make their recom­mend­a­tion for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize, as well as special mentions, in an online scoring system. Prize winners are determ­ined on this basis in an online video confer­ence of all Script Chairs together with both Chair­per­sons.

Timetable

The GRANSHAN Competition is accepting submissions from November 27 to the now extended deadline February 29, with judging beginning in March/April 2024, and winners to be announced in May/June 2024.

Submissions

from 27 November to (new) 29 February
Can be made using the submission tool.

Save the Date

Start of jury work

March/April 2024

Announcement of winners

May/June 2024

Awards

There is a lot to win at GRANSHAN: First, second and third prizes in each of the Script Groups for each of the categories, special mentions and the GRANSHAN Grand Prize of 3,000 € for the best of the best.
Grand Prize
The apex of typographic honour with a 3,000 € award
First Prize awards:
Recognition for up to 60 outstanding works
Second Prize awards:
Honours for up to 60 remarkable creations
Third Prize awards:
Commendations for up to 60 impressive entries
Special Mentions: Celebrating unique attributes and exceptional development
The organisers of the GRANSHAN competition reserve the right to display submitted typefaces at the exhibitions, in the press, in social media and in any other relevant publications. Therefore, we kindly ask for a short 20-word bio and a portrait photo of the type designer(s) in a printable resolution in A6.

Join in and submit your entries if they meet the following conditions:

  1. All typefaces designed or digit­ised in or after 2020 in compli­ance with the require­ments of the compet­i­tion are eligible for submis­sion.

  2. Typefaces may be submit­ted by anyone involved in their design and produc­tion, as a client or as a market­ing depart­ment (when submit­ting, please define your posi­tion).

  3. All submit­ted typefaces shall comply with and use the Unicode encod­ing system.

  4. Entries can be single typefaces or type famil­ies, reviv­als or new devel­op­ments. Custom fonts are welcome, as well as student projects on a profes­sional level.

  5. You can, of course, submit multiple entries to this contest. Please use a separ­ate form in the online applic­a­tion for each entry and submit separ­ate PDFs. Also please note that each submis­sion must be paid for separ­ately.

  6. Even though the GRAN­SHAN community has been affected by violent conflicts all over the world in the past, we have come to the conclu­sion that the current situ­ation requires a clear state­ment. We have there­fore decided that we require every­one to confirm a declar­a­tion of commit­ment.

Eager to showcase your talent and stand out among the best? Don't miss this opportunity—submit your entry to the competition today and let your skills shine.
Submit your entry →