Twenties Comp
Competitions, News | Rob Meek (meek) | March 25th, 2021
Dear FontStructors,
It’s been a while, too long, since we last raised the gates to unleash FontStructor versus FontStructor in mortal combat.
It’s also been a while since we had a competition, so
Let the bricks be levied!
Let the grid be burnished bright and the curtains drawn!
It’s time to compete.
Competition Brief
We would like you to build one or more FontStructions which are somehow connected to our competition theme.
The theme for this competition is “Twenties” (thank you beate!). We chose it from among many great suggestions, firstly because it’s suggestive of an exciting era in typography, but also because it can be interpreted in a much broader and abstract fashion.
So please interpret the theme as loosely as you wish – it’s there only to inspire, not to confine.
– You might well be inspired by the Art Deco and modernist typography of the 1920s, but you might also choose to work on a 20×20 grid, or you could look to any aspect of our own peculiar decade for inspiration. You could turn your thoughts to the 1820s, the 1720s, or even the first XXs CE.
So, the image at the top of this post is there only for decoration. It does not indicate any expectations or a given direction. You won’t be judged on how “twenties-ish ” your design is.
If you’re really struggling for ideas, you could explore some of our curated Sets, such as “Bauhaus Inspired”, or “Art Deco”.
Competition Time Period
Thursday, 25th March 2021 – Friday 9th April, 2021
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 25th March 2021 and 9th April, 2021. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 9th April, 2021 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 17th April 2021 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “TwentiesComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “TwentiesComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “TwentiesComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction. (but it needs to be downloadable!)
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff and a guest judge* between April 10th and April 17th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday April 19th 2021.
*UPDATE: We’re delighted to confirm Nick Sherman as our guest judge for this competition. Nick runs HEX a typographic company that makes fonts and websites. He’s a founder and designer of v-fonts.com and Fonts In Use, and art director of the Typographics design festival. Nick is a graduate of the Type@Cooper Extended Program in typeface design and has served on the Type Directors Club board of directors, the Adobe Typography Customer Advisory Board, and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum artistic board.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the highest number of legitimate favourites (yes we check) at 11pm PST on 16th April 2021 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
FontStructions in the image at the top, from innermost to outermost: Cabaret by blu., Half Deco by Wataru Aiso, fs When We Were Young by thalamic and Folletto AllaModa by blu.
FontStruct would like to heartily thank our principal sponsor: Glyphs and our many FS Patrons for supporting FontStruct.
I’m very excited to see what this competition yields!
– user-juli — March 25, 2021 #
Thanks a lot to our host and caretaker Rob Meek for this tasty new challenge! Bricks up, people, let’s go fontstructing!
– elmoyenique — March 25, 2021 #
Very excited for this, so many fantastic ideas to explore. Can’t wait to see what’s fonstructed!
– time.peace — March 25, 2021 #
I’ll get started on my entries. Also, one sentence says “also work choose to work on a” instead of “also choose to work on a”…
– BWM — March 25, 2021 #
Yes! 1920s 3D Decorative Street Art it is!
– geneus1 — March 26, 2021 #
when I see the word ‘twenty’ I am like: |-/
– vicviancavivo — March 26, 2021 #
Oh, nearly missed this one :) Maybe emails should be sent for when there are new blog posts.
– architaraz — April 1, 2021 #
if only i saw this blog post earlier… :( anyway, i wish all participants good luck & fun
btw: thanks for using 2 of my fonts for the image at the top :)
– blu. — April 9, 2021 #
@meek: Now when this electrifying TwentiesComp has ended, I would like to thank you once again for the possibility that you have given us to fight with the greats of FS in this fight of giants that, unfortunately, only occurs from year to year. Thanks boss. Long live FontStruct! ❤︎
– elmoyenique — April 10, 2021 #
@Rob @Elmo: I can only agree with you. It is always a pleasure to try something new. I still find FontStruct fascinating, especially because you can share your own ideas and approaches with so many clever and skilled companions. We, too, have evolved with FS. Thanks for that, Rob. ✌?
– beate — April 10, 2021 #