Monotype - Research - Previous Winners

Looking at some of the previous winners of Monotype D&AD briefs was great for research and ideas, though clearly they were answering a different brief, they’re still very applicable and give a great demonstration of how in depth and thought out the design, concept and production have to be:

Radical Good - “Radical Good is a typography solution that helps to promote gender equality in Chinese. In simplified Chinese, each character is made up of graphical components called radicals, which alone have their own meanings. However, a long history of patriarchy in Chinese society is reflected in how some radicals are combined to make characters, so I have chosen eight Chinese characters with single gender radicals that are commonly used in daily life, and redesigned their typeforms to allow the use of the female and male gender radicals interchangeably, in order to promote gender equality.”

Fabric of the Nation - “'Fabric of the Nation' is a campaign which uses the type systems of fashion and fibre composition labelling to challenge the beliefs surrounding British identity. The rise of mass migration and globalisation has been accompanied by a questioning of what, if anything, it means to be British. Too often these discussions lead to the division of our citizens into those who are 'more' British and those who are 'less' British. 'Fabric of the Nation' focuses on the DNA profiles of well-known British citizens and celebrities; and aims to reinforce the fact that we are all different AND all British.”

Retro Serif - “Retro Serif” is a project about the revival of abolished Russian glyphs. With the Bolshevik overthrow, it was decided to omit the letters I, Ѳ, Ѣ from the ‘new’ Russian alphabet as these were regarded as symbols of the aristocratic ‘High Russian’ and representative of the defunct Tsarist Russia. Those symbols were part of the original language, that was adopted by creative minds such as Pushkin and Tolstoy. Reviving these characters is a protest against the prescribed dictatorship of the language.”

All of these winning entries demonstrate a clear concept which has been researched thoroughly, the idea is clear and simple and has been visualised and designed efficiently and effectively. They give me a lot of inspiration for my brief; instead of researching an existing charity which is doing good and subsequently trying to communicate their message, I will come up with a community or issue in general and promote it via a bold typographical campaign. `The Radical Good and Retro serif projects really tie in with this current Monotype project the best as they have an issue connected with a community and a design/typeface is produced as a response and solution. I intend to try and use this process in my work.