Gerard Unger Scholarship

The annual Gerard Unger Scholarship helps promising typeface design students develop their careers right away. We encourage all students enrolled in or graduating from a typography course to submit their unique typeface design projects — yes, even if they are unfinished! We are looking for your fresh and inspiring ideas for a novel type family, without any limitations regarding its creative concept.

Our aim is to enable exceptional projects started during a course of study to be finalised and published commercially as soon as possible after the end of their course. The designer whose project is selected will receive feedback on their design and guidance from the entire TypeTogether team toward completing the family on a commercial basis. Additionally, a sum of money will be provided to allow the designer to continue working on the typeface after their course of study is over.

Previous winners

Winning designers will join an esteemed group of young talent: Roxane Gataud’s Bely, Juan Bruce’s Noort, Quentin Schmerber’s Temeraire, Bogidar Mascareñas’s Laima, Florian Fecher’s Lektorat family, Anya Danilova’s Rezak, Nina Faulhaber’s Aeroplan, Emma Marichal’s Ploquine, and Patrycja Walczak’s Poltik. Four of our Gerard Unger Scholarship designers have won awards, including the coveted TDC Certificate of Excellence award for three of them. And now it’s your turn!

Who can apply

Any current or graduated student either enrolled in or graduating from a typography course this year who has fully or partially developed a type family (more than a single weight) that includes, but is not limited to, the basic Latin alphabet.

Why work with TypeTogether?

Established in 2006, TypeTogether is an independent type foundry with a cosmopolitan soul. Our small core team works remotely to create innovative and stylish solutions to the greatest problems in the professional typography market worldwide. We specialise in multiscript font design for digital and print editorial use, and create custom type for corporate use with clients like Apple Inc., Siemens Healthcare, Alphabet/Google, and an array of newspapers, magazines, social media and marketing companies, gaming, and digital works.

Our internationally awarded catalogue — honoured for its high quality, usefulness, personality, and ability to grab attention — spans many languages and scripts and is diligently expanding each year. In addition to all this, each teammate takes an active role in the global type community because we are convinced that education and encouragement are great ways to put good into the world. In short, we’re a fun team of highly qualified and respected individuals who want to help you succeed. Together we create positive impact through written language.

Key annual dates

• 15 April: application submissions begin, via a simple online form (coming soon)
• 1 June: final date to submit entries; late entries will not be judged.
• 1 August: winner(s) announced.

How to participate

In 2024 we have created an online form to make the submission process easier and more fair by anonymising submissions.

In addition to some information about you and your project, we need to see visual material that showcases your typeface in the best possible way. Show us the best glyphs, how the design works in text, display, and headlines, and if you can, show examples of imagined uses. Don’t forget to include the current character set in every script, no matter how limited or advanced it might be.

To ensure anonymity, you may include the typeface name in the visual material, but do not include your name, the school name, or any identifying factors.

We do not provide a template, but you can follow the examples on the instructions and FAQs PDF, where we have explained how to proceed with the submission.

What the selected designers get: 
 

1. Mentoring 

Veronika Burian, José Scaglione, and the rest of the TypeTogether team will provide advice on the commercial, aesthetic, and technical sides of font-making. TypeTogether will offer feedback about design features, help with the testing procedures, and share knowledge, tools, and processes to ensure the quality of the final product. Mentoring is the core of this programme and will be consistently available from the start, from overviewing the contractual terms until the typeface release and beyond.

2. Publishing

The designer will receive a contract that includes publishing the selected type family in TypeTogether’s retail library. This contract allows designers to opt out at any time and offers a 50% royalty rate, which is one of the highest rates in the industry (if not the highest). Designers retain all the rights and ownership of their work, including any future family expansion.

3. Internship & funding

The selected designer will enter a working intern relationship with TypeTogether for a period of five (5) months after their graduation, or as soon as possible. The designer will be expected to work a certain number of set hours per week to develop their typeface only. They will work remotely but within a professional environment were they will learn different aspects of the type-founding industry. The exact terms will be decided in accordance with the preferences and options of the selected designer, and balanced against the design necessities of the typeface and our publishing schedule. The designer’s work will be supervised at different stages by the TypeTogether team, and the ultimate goal is to make progress with the type family in an environment of fun and learning.

As an intern, the selected designer will receive €5,000 total paid out over the course of five months in exchange for participating in the internship to develop their typeface within TypeTogether’s structure. Additionally, the selected designer will receive funding (up to €1,000) to attend an agreed top-level typography, design, or educational conference.

Good faith submissions

We are excited to work with designers who are ready to do amazing things, embrace the process, and put something worthwhile of their own into the world. With this submission comes certain responsibilities as you are entering a new level of professionalism.

You are affirming:

• This is an original work which does not infringe on the rights or design of another work.
• I originated the concept, was the sole designer, and all appropriate crediting has been given.
• I have made every reasonable attempt to know this design category and taken every reasonable measure to tangibly distinguish my work from others, whether revivals or comparable works. (Revivals must either add to the historic design or distance itself tangibly.)

For more information about this programme, please contact us at scholarship@type-together.com.