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OESOL INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHY AWARDS

GRANSHAN proudly promotes the first Korean Typography Competition: Oesol International Typography Award!

Oesol and GRANSHAN are a perfect match as they both believe that type drives culture – and vice versa. Both competitions are searching for the brightest minds and artistic visionaries to showcase their mastery of letterforms and push the boundaries of typographic expression.

12th GRANSHAN TYPE DESIGN COMPETITION 2021/22

We are very pleased to announce the results of the 12th GRANSHAN Type Design Competition: WINNERS
The esteemed jury members awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd and special mentions to 61 entries. They all voted unanimously for SAKKAL KITAB by Mamoun Sakkal & Aida Sakkal as GRAND PRIZE. Congratulations!

GRANSHAN Type Design Competition 2019 results

The GRANSHAN Type Design Competition 2019 results are out! We proudly announce, the GRAND PRIZE goes to Lewis McGuffie for his typefaces Columba, awarded in the multi script Category C for the Cyrillic and Greek typefaces.

ideec is a free conference in San José

The annual IDEEC

Ideec Conference, Exhibition and Workshops is now open for registration. San Jose State University is partnering with the GRANSHAN Foundation and AIGA to host this exciting free conference to share the value and diversity of design education with invited international educational institutions.

Gerard Unger at GRANSHAN Conference 2015

Thank you, Gerard Unger

No idea could reach too far, no color, no structure, no history and no obsession. On the contrary, there was hardly a challenge he would not take on and find his own answer for, his own new adaptation and solution. We will dearly miss his ability to bring history into the present, as well as his passion for the big context and the small details – with infinite generosity, serenity and humour. Gerard Unger, who was a key contributor to promoting GRANSHAN, died last Friday. We bid farewell with great respect and a deep bow: Thank you Gerard!

GRANSHAN Sabbatical

The 2018 Sabbatical

The GRANSHAN conference last year in Yerevan marked the tenth anniversary of the GRANSHAN project, and an opportunity for reflection and intensive work on the future of GRANSHAN. The unique initiative from Armenia by Edik Ghabuzyan and his team for non-Latin typefaces has become a widely respected and supported industry project. With the entry of the Typographische Gesellschaft München (Munich Typographic Society) and the first big international conference in Bangkok in 2013, we expanded significantly the original ideas – the lead statement on our website captures this: “GRANSHAN is the hub for global visual identity. We celebrate non-Latin type faces and typography, design and communication that enable communities to develop culture and enterprises in a balance between local, regional, and global.”

 

Georgian Font at GRANSHAN Conference

The Caucasus Business Week made an announcement for the GRANSHAN conference and typography week in Yerevan.
Thank you, we liked it :-)

 

Outlook to Granshan 2018

Outlook to Granshan 2018

Thanks to all speakers, organizers, sponsors and a wonderful audience for this successful event! It has been a blast!
Today, Edik Ghabuzyan and Boris Kochan with the founding members Chang Sik Kim and Gerry Leonidas are announcing next year’s location.
SAVE THE DATE: 23 – 29 July 2018 GRANSHAN Conference will take place in beautiful California!

Sponsor Commercial amoung others

Thanks to our generous sponsors!

TUMO Center for creative technologies above all for hosting GRANSHAN conference 2017 and supporting in all manners! We were also very grateful for the Sandoll communications having sponsored a highlevel simultanous translation from Armenian to English and viceversa! And very happy were we about commercial sponsoring bags and specimen of Graphik – which, and that was just perfect – was awarded 1st prize in this year’s competition for the Arabic version. Well done!

Paul Geumho Seok CEO of Sandoll Communications, inc. at GRANSHAN conference 2017

Paul Geumho Seok – Hangul typeface projects for commercial use

Paul Geum Ho Seok, founder of the Korean type foundry Sandoll, is sharing his experience and views on designing Hangul specifically with a commercial context in mind, showing some of their work for clients such as Microsoft, Samsung, Google and Apple as well as for their own library.

Round Table with previous Armenian GRANSHAN Winners

Hrant Papazian and Khajag Apelian are discussing Armenian type with previous GRANSHAN winners Hrachuhi Grigoryan, Marieta Arzumanyan, and Syuzi Hakobyan.

Khajag Apelian at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

KHAJAG APELIAN – AREK AND TUMO

Khajak Apelian, designer and educator, is talking us through his process of researching and designing an Armenian typeface – one that would be distinctly Armenian, yet contemporary.

Hrant Papazian at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

HRANT PAPAZIAN – TWO HEARTS

“Armenian people have two hearts – not always beating in sync. But two hearts is better than one.“ Hrant Papazian is speaking about Armenian typography, in Armenia and globally. Armenian typefaces look to the west, for diasporans it is the opposite.

ARMENIAN SESSION

Three positions of Armenian specialists on Armenian calligraphy, scripts and writings. We delve into the wide realm of Armenian scripture.

The GRANSHAN Jury awards the 2017 winners.

GRANSHAN Competition Winners 2017

In Yerevan, Armenia the GRANSHAN jury members decided on this year’s winners in non-Latin typeface designs. Congratulation to all winners of GRANSHAN prizes and special mentions. We are very proud of you! A Grand prize was not awarded in this year, but see the winners’ chart here!

Susanne Zippel at GRANSHAN conference 2017

Susanne Zippel – Typography for Johannes Bobrowski

Susanne Zippel is showing a multi-script design project about the works of German poet Johannes Bobrowski.

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer at GRANSHAN

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer – Tricky Variable Fonts

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer is giving some playful examples of what variable fonts can do.

 

Carolyn Puzzovio at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Carolyn Puzzovio – The Georgian script

Carolyn is drawing parallels between the Armenian and the Georgian alphabet: such as the fact that both were developed for a specific language, and are used by their people exclusively.

Adi Stern at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Adi Stern – Art and design education

Adi Stern, Head of the Department of Visual Communication at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, is captivating our attention with examples of students’ work.

Fiona Ross at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Fiona Ross – The design brief

In her keynote presentation Fiona Ross is emphasising the importance of the design brief as a starting point for typeface design. Focussing on South Asian scripts, this is just as relevant for other scripts: it is the consideration where, how and for what a typeface is used. 

Exhibitions at GRANSHAN Yerevan

Exhibitions at GRANSHAN Yerevan

GRANSHAN conference is complemented by a number of exhibitions: ATypI’s Letter2 exhibitions, GRANSHAN’s 2016 competition winners, TUMO students’ work, a group calligraphy project by Ruben Malayan as well an exhibition by the Association of Georgian Typefaces. We are surrounded and engulfed in letters!

Nejdeh Hovanessian at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Nejdeh Hovanessian – Why sometimes it doesn’t feel like “Persian”?!

Armenian-Iranian designer Nejdeh Hovanessian is giving insights into the Arabic script as it is used in Iran, in calligraphy and typography. 

Haytham Nawar at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Haytham Nawar – Living letters: living cultures

Cinema and film making has a strong history in Egypt. Haytham Nawar is presenting expressive designs of lettering in cinema posters and film booklets of the Golden Era (1940s-70s) and comparing them to later digital examples

Cyrillic Session at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Cyrillic Session

Three talks by Alexei Vanyashin, Kyrylo Tkachov and Ilja Ruderman about Cyrillic are followed by a lively discussion. About variants, standards, cultural diversity and the current practice – living letters indeed!

Giga Khatiashvili at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Giga Khatiashvili – Georgian typography

”Giga, what is your opinion on capitals?” “To be quite frank, it is very negative.” … Giga Khatiashvili is reporting on typography in Georgia and pointing out script specific specialities.

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer at GRANSHAN 2017

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer – Tricky Cyrillics

Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, one of the brains behind the font editor Glyphs, is giving pro tips for designing Cyrillic – efficiently, but to a perfectionist typographer’s standard.

Chang SIk Kim at GRANSHAN Conference 2017

Chang Sik Kim – Hangul, the living letters

Chang Sik Kim is giving a great insight into Hangul – the Korean script – and how the letter shapes were developed and and how they evolved.

Gerry Leonidas at Granshan Conference 2017

Gerry Leonidas – Greek type and typography

We’re starting our second conference day with a keynote talk by Gerry Leonidas, president of ATypI and associate professor at the University of Reading.

Calligraphy Performance by Ruben Malayan and Timothy Donaldson

Armenian meets Latin, ink meets paper. Black on white, white on black – the letters criss cross and intertwine, merge and grow. Fascinating performance by Ruben Malayan and Timothy Donaldson, we are spellbound by the magic of calligraphy.

Boris Kochan announcing the winners 2017

GRANSHAN Competition Winners 2017

During the last two days, the GRANSHAN jury came together to assess this year’s submissions, to consider the experts feedback and to discuss the works. And now Edik Ghabuzyan and Boris Kochan announce the winners of the 2017 competition: We would like to congratulate all the winners – well done! We applaud you for making the world of non-Latin type more diverse and beautiful!

Edik Ghabuzyan at GRANSHAN conference

Edik Ghabuzyan – The Armenian alphabet

We dive right into the subject of the Armenian script with Edik Ghabuzyan’s keynote presentation. 10 million people globally, 3 million of them in Armenia, share this alphabet – it is an integer part of the Armenian identity. His talk is a passionate appeal for the preservation of the letterforms, styles and traditions, a great start to this conference.

Angela Poghosova on the history of GRANSHAN

Angela Poghosova – The History of GRANSHAN

Angela Poghosova is giving an overview over the ten year history of GRANSHAN: From it’s beginnings as a type competition in Armenia to an organisation promoting non-Latin type and typography on a global scale today.

 

Greeting words from GRANSHAN curators Boris Kochan, Edik Ghabuzyan, Gerry Leonidas

GRANSHAN Yerevan – Opening notes

For our 10 year anniversary, GRANSHAN is returning to its place of origin: Հայաստան. The conference curators Edik Ghabuzyan, Boris Kochan and Gerry Leonidas open this year’s exhibitions, discussions and talks here at TUMO Center in Yerevan where we are kindly greeted by Armen Amiryan and Aram Gyumishyan. We are very excited to be here, and we are looking forward to a great conference!

GRANSHAN at AtypI

GRANSHAN Competition 2016 winners' poster travel to Montréal!
During the AtypI in Montréal you can see over 30 posters of the awarded typefaces. Gratulations to all winners again!
 

Deadline Extended!

We have had many questions on this, so we decided: This year’s GRANSHAN non-Latin international typeface design competition will extend the deadline for a couple of days, and submissions will be accepted until the 6th of September!

GRANSHAN Competition is now calling for entries

NOW CALLING FOR ENTRIES

There are only a few days left!
Don't miss the 10th anniversary GRANSHAN Competition of international non-Latin typeface design.

GRANSHAN Competition 2017

Be alert for this year's call on entries for GRANSHAN Competition. Find out more about the catagories, rules and regulations: Visit the Granshan Competition 2017 section.

GRANSHAN GOES TUMO CENTER

We are very excited! The next international GRANSHAN non-Latin Type Conference will take place in Yerevan, Armenia. And not only that: the conference will be hosted at TUMO Center for Creative Technologies.

Winner Exhibition

The GRANSHAN winners’ typefaces of 2016 will be exhibited soon!

Design et Identity

Check out the GRANSHAN publication "DESIGN & IDENTITY". It provides all information on the idea of GRANSHAN – the font competition, the conferences on non-Latin and multiscript typefaces, the people behind and much more.

Design et Identity

Check out the GRANSHAN publication "DESIGN & IDENTITY". It provides all information on the idea of GRANSHAN – the font competition, the conferences on non-Latin and multiscript typefaces, the people behind and much more.

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