BA Graphic Communication graduate wins The Tokyo Type Director’s Club grand prize

Michael Kelly won the award for his ‘VR’ typeface.

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication graduate Michael Kelly has been awarded The Tokyo Type Director’s Club grand prize for his typeface ‘VR’.

The Tokyo Type Directors Club is an organisation dedicated to education, research and challenging what is thought of as typography. Each year a selection of Japan’s leading typographers gather to judge entries to their annual competition, which is open globally and gathers around 3,000 entries.

“It feels amazing to have won this prize. When I entered I really didn’t have any expectations, I just wanted to have a go and see what happened. It was a complete shock to have won!” said Michael.

Previous winners of the prize include Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister&Walsh, Nejc Prah and Fraser Muggeridge.

“The inspiration for the font came from ancient writing carved into stone or clay tablets, and from futuristic computer terminals. The idea came out of my dissertation which was to do with virtual reality. In ancient times it was believed that words written in stone had magical powers to shape reality. Nowadays, one can write code in a computer program and create realities inside the machine.”

Michael has been invited to a ceremony in Tokyo where he is to give a talk about his practise and winning typeface to well-known graphic designers.

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