The World’s Best Typography®

The World’s Best Typography® is the TDC’s annual: the printed record of each year’s competition winners. The goal was to change who published it and who paid for it, so the book could stay ambitious.

The model was unsustainable:

• Production costs far exceeded what the book brought in
• Members received the annual with their membership, but high production and shipping costs pushed the cover price past any workable margin
• The book was under-promoted, with no visibility beyond the TDC’s own online store
• The TDC had never worked with a partner publisher

Co-editor of volumes 46 and 47, alongside the TDC’s executive director.

• Brokered the TDC’s first partner-publisher deal, with Slanted, one of design’s most credible international publishers
• Brought in sponsors, including Glyphs and Adobe, through advertorials that shared production costs
• Wrote the introduction to Volume 46 and the foreword for Volume 47
• Oversaw art direction for both volumes, linking the book’s designers with winners worldwide
• Rebranded the annual’s campaign assets
• Scripted the placement of 600+ winner images and credits
• Kept production on schedule for a ship date timed to preorders
• Set up US wholesale with Drawdown Books; the order sold out

The first partner-publisher deal in nearly 50 years of the annual. Working with the most credible publisher in the design world put the book in hundreds of bookstores worldwide, and turned it into positioning and advertising for the club’s wider initiatives. Typography 46 sold 1,000+ copies, up from about 200.

See the results below.