Monotype Announces Winners of Second Annual Type Champions Award

WOBURN, Mass., Nov. 19, 2020 - Monotype today announced the winners of the second annual Type Champions Award, which recognizes and celebrates brands that elevate the value of typography in developing and maintaining brand identities. The winners were selected by a panel of 19 global branding experts who evaluated the role of typography in building brand messages, marketing and advertising efforts, and overall customer experiences.

The 2020 Type Champions include:

• Actual Source
• Adidas
• Australian Centre for the Moving Image
• Baemin Vietnam
• City of Helsinki
• Duolingo
• IBM
• MoMA
• Naturalizer
• Studio Dumbar

Winners will be revealed at Monotype’s Brand Talks Connected virtual event today, which brings together design, marketing and branding professionals to examine trends, learn real-world strategies and find inspiration. To learn more about the 2020 Type Champions and their projects, visit the Type Champions Award site.

The judges panel recorded several notable takeaways about this year’s winners: 

• “This years nominations were incredible. I feel honored to have seen such a wonderful display of type use and font creation to further the field and build awareness on what typography can do to bring brands to life.” – Kristine Arth, Founder and Principal Designer, Lobster Phone
• “Typography is both architecture and music. It should explode with clarity and delight, elevating a brand’s voice above an increasingly noisy mess of customer interfaces and experiences. More than any other visual element, typography can be the most potent technology a company has to distinguish itself and deliver its promise to the communities it serves. This year’s winners demonstrate how type can be smartly leveraged by brands – both big and small, neighborhoods and nation-states, local cultural organizations and world culture at large. Congratulations to every single one of the uncommonly literate designers who have imagined, created, fought, worked insanely hard, imagined, created, fought, and worked insanely hard again to bring this most important craft to life.” – Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer and Founder, COLLINS
• “We received nominations from around the world this year, with true diversity across regions, cultures, industries, and brand sizes. What I love most about the list of 2020 Type Champions is that they cannot be put into one category. Each represents a fantastic and unique example of typographic excellence that works for the brand (or location!) and its specific set of needs.” – Jenn Hilliard, Senior Manager, Brand Development & Strategy, Rocket Mortgage
• “This year, when evaluating work I was looking for a few specifics: expressive elements in type, unique characters that I hadn’t seen before, nuanced detail of the typefaces in either layout or broader use. While the bulk of nominees did not disappoint, the brands we collectively selected stood out for their distinct families and bold personalities.” – Blake Howard, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Matchstic
• “As the world shifts dramatically to digital experiences, the role of typography becomes ever more critical for brands looking to deliver consistent, meaningful experiences. Of the many submissions, our panel selected a set of winners that represent how powerful, albeit varied, the use of type can be in crafting identity.” – Charles Nix, Creative Type Director, Monotype

The 2020 Type Champions Award panel includes:

• Abbott Miller, Partner, Pentagram
• Alejandro Paul, Type Designer and Founder, Sudtipos
• Andy Payne, Global Chief Creative Officer, Interbrand
• Bobby C. Martin Jr., Co-Founder, Champions Design
• Blake Howard, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Matchstic
• Brett Zucker, Chief Marketing Officer, Monotype
• Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer and Founder, COLLINS
• Charles Nix, Type Director, Monotype
• James Fooks-Bale, Creative Director, Monotype
• Jenn Hilliard, Senior Manager, Brand Development & Strategy, Rocket Mortgage
• Josh Miles, Chief Marketing Officer of SMPS and Host of Obsessed Show
• Kirsten Dietz, Founder and Partner, Strichpunkt Design
• Kristine Arth, Founder and Principal Designer, Lobster Phone
• Mohamed Gaber, Founder, Kief Type Foundry
• Nicole Johnson, Associate Director User Experience, Iconmobile Group
• Patrick Märki, Managing Director, KMS Team
• Perrin Drumm, Head of Publishing, A24
• Rodney Abbot, Senior Partner, Lippincott
• Sherina Florence, Creative Director, Ogilvy

Follow the conversation further by searching #TypeChampions2020 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Monotype

Monotype empowers creative minds to build and express authentic brands through design, technology and expertise. Further information is available at www.monotype.com. Follow Monotype on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Monotype is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2020 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved.

Contacts

Bill Connolly
Public Relations, Monotype
[email protected]

Michelle Millsap
Havas Formula for Monotype
[email protected]

Courtney Glymph
ThoughtLDR for Monotype – UK
[email protected]

Tanja Koschade
Koschade PR for Monotype – Germany
[email protected] ###