Big yellow type book

The NYC-based Type Directors Club (TDC) has just published its printed annual, The World’s Best Typography, Typography 46, featuring winners from the latest TDC competition. With an aim of encouraging excellence in typography, the selection for this year’s competition includes projects from 33 countries and regions.

For this edition, with a striking yellow cover, the TDC collaborated closely with independent German publishing house Slanted. Founded by Julia Kahl and Lars Harmsen in 2014, Slanted grew out of a blog that the duo started a decade earlier. They work worldwide with a variety of authors and creatives, publishing magazines and design-related books.

Harmsen calls the TDC collaboration ‘a dream come true’, saying: ‘We always think of a book as more than its content – as a physical experience, a story within a story. With Typography 46, we wanted to honour TDC’s long tradition while giving it a fresh, contemporary feel.’

The book, printed by NINO Druck using a variety of Fedrigoni papers. Using three fonts by Polish type foundry Threedotstype, the book is highlights design work from three disciplines: Communication Design, Lettering Design and Type Design, along with a ‘Young Ones’ section that includes student winners. Each includes a ‘Judges’ Choices’ portion with the judges’ personal favourites.

Harmsen recounts the creative process, saying, ‘Creating a book in an online age already feels a little disruptive – and we embraced that. We arranged the works almost like in a digital scrollbar, letting them flow across pages to create a sense of movement and rhythm.’