TDC Announces 2024 Ascenders Winners From 11 Countries

Jul. 31, 2024

The Type Directors Club, the world’s leading typography organization, today announced talented young winners from 11 countries in the 2024 Ascenders competition, as well as its annual scholarship programs.

Ascenders, which celebrates typographers, lettering artists, and type designers ages 35 and under, 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. 

TDC 2024 Ascenders winners are:

• Léo Breton-Allaire, type designer, and Sébastien Paradis, partner, lead designer (team), Caserne Montréal
• Léa Bruneau, type designer, Production Type Paris
• Mario De Libero, type designer, and Sofia Bandini, graphic designer (team), Ligature srl Firenze
• Gianluca Ciancaglini, brand and type designer, Landor Milan
• Nahuel Gerth, creative technologist, Prague
• Namrata Goyal, type designer, Alwar (India)
• Lars Høie, graphic designer, Studio Lars Høie Oslo
• Bogidar Mascareñas, type designer, lettering artist, Barcelona
• Abdo Mohamed, type designer, Boharat Dubai
• Maithili Shingre, type designer, Ek Type Mumbai
• Alec Tear, designer, lettering artist, Amsterdam
• Vivek Thakker, multidisciplinary designer, New York
• Hyunsun You, graphic designer, Workroom Seoul

This year’s Ascenders, selected by an esteemed jury of typography and type design professionals, join prominent past winners including Au Chon Hin (2022), Kevin Cantrell (2018), Roxane Gataud (2022), Gemma O’Brien (2022), Juan Carlos Pagan (2018), Tré Seals (2018), and others. 

Scholarship winners

TDC also announced the winners and honorable mentions for its annual scholarship programs.

Gabriella Parra Sánchez, a student at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, was selected as the winner of this year’s Beatrice Warde Scholarship, sponsored by Monotype.  The $5,000 scholarship recognizes a female-identifying college student globally in their next-to-last year of undergraduate study whose work demonstrates exceptional talent, sophistication, and skill in the use of typography across current media.

The Adé Hogue Scholarship, also sponsored by Monotype, was established in commemoration of gifted up-and-coming Chicago-based art director, designer, letterer, and avid cyclist Adé Hogue, and recognizes BIPOC students studying type design at a US college or university.  The winner receives a $5,000 scholarship.

The 2024 winner is Patrick Guanaz, at Senac São Paulo. Honorable mentions went to Jaamal Benjamin, Yale University; Nikki Caballero, Texas A&M; Shakthi Mari Narayanasamy and Ven Kataraman (team), Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

Aiyana Twigg, a student at University of Victoria, is the recipient of the 2024 TDC Ezhishin Scholarship, sponsored by Google.  Launched in 2022 as the first such program dedicated to Native North American typography, the $5,000 scholarship is for Native American and First Nation individuals, whether current students or those that want to supplement their education via post-grad programs, applicable workshops, or self-initiated projects.

In addition, TDC also awarded five students in their third year of school, each of whom received a $1,000 scholarship.  These TDC Scholarships for 2024 went to:

• Kushagr Awasthi, Parsons School of Design New York
• Sohyeong Kim, School of Visual Arts New York
• Ossian Osborne, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
• Juju Stojanovic, University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
• Yubin Won, School of Visual Arts New York

Along with the financial awards, the winners of each scholarship receive a one-year TDC student membership, which includes a copy of The World’s Best Typography®, Typography 45, and complimentary admission for all TDC events.

TDC, part of The One Club for Creativity, will host a reception for the 2024 Ascenders and scholarship  winners on August 14, 2024, at the club’s gallery space in New York.  Event details and tickets are available here.

The 2024 Ascenders branding and award were designed by Marta Cerdà Alimbau, a TDC Advisory Board member who runs her design studio in Barcelona, and fellow TDC Advisory Board member Parasto Backman, who operates Studio Parasto Backman in Stockholm.