At the ceremony for the prestigious Joseph Binder Award, TypeTogether was awarded the highest honour for our Playwrite font family, recognising the enormous efforts of our team and the many partners who helped with research.
We are delighted to announce that Playwrite has received the maximum distinction at the 2024 Joseph Binder Award in the category of type design, a competition that happens every two years. Tom Grace, senior designer at TypeTogether, joined the symposium and award ceremony.
First launched in 1996 by designaustria, the Joseph Binder Award is an international competition and showroom with a focus on graphic design and illustration. It is named after Joseph Binder, one of the most outstanding graphic designers and illustrators active in Austria, who subsequently also revolutionised visual communication in the United States. All entries are assessed by an international jury of experts, with gold, silver, and bronze trophies awarded to worthy projects in each category.
The works showcased at this year’s Joseph Binder Award were not just expressions of individual creativity, they also reflect a collective consciousness attuned to the challenges of our time. They demonstrate how design can provide tangible solutions to pressing issues — whether by crafting compelling campaigns that promote sustainable practices, or developing innovative visual languages that amplify myriad voices. The theme ‘Show Your Color’ embodies the courage of designers and illustrators to challenge conventions and use their skills to illuminate critical issues.
The international jury of the Joseph Binder Award assessed 896 submissions, selecting 195 entries for the final round. Ultimately, 76 projects were recognised with awards or prizes. Key evaluation criteria included a clear concept, innovation, social and economic relevance, and technical execution. The winners — 13 gold, 13 silver, 13 bronze trophies, 4 cash prizes, and 32 awards — were celebrated on 27 March 2025 at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna followed by the Joseph Binder Symposium and the exhibition.
The winning projects were exhibited at the design forum Wien, showcasing outstanding international works in the fields of graphic design and illustration from the past two years. The opening of the exhibition is accompanied by the comprehensive catalogue, which documents all winning projects, introduces the namesake Joseph Binder, and this year’s members of the international jury.
TypeTogether senior designer Tom Grace attended the event for the company and had this to say. “There was a lot of enthusiasm in the room with so many people, including local media. The invitees were all finalists, and since every project was earning a distinction at some level, each project presented was high calibre. It was inspiring to see the breadth of work in the different design categories, and after every gold winner the jury gave comments explaining their decisions.”
The next day’s symposium was a selection of ten-minute presentations from eight of the finalist projects, including TypeTogether’s, as well as a 10–15 minute Q & A session. Tom’s involvement in Playwrite came at a later stage in its development, and because of its breadth of research, he admitted he needed a fair amount of time to look beyond the font structure and drawings in order to gain a more holistic view of the project. According to Tom, “Taking part in the Joseph Binder Award event gave me the time and space not only to learn more about the other excellent work presented, but also to reflect on the magnitude of the work we had done — behind the research project, beyond its creation, and past its publication. It highlighted the contributions of everyone on the TypeTogether team.”
Playwrite received the Gold award in the type design category, and the jury had this to say about the Playwrite font family: “Playwrite is a remarkable endeavour that unites diverse languages and cultures through innovative typographic solutions. This project stands out not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for its conceptual depth, as it seeks to create a versatile tool adaptable across various linguistic landscapes. The design exudes a fresh and funky vibe, capturing attention while remaining rooted in modernity. It successfully balances contemporary aesthetics with an educational essence, making it both visually striking and functionally relevant. The typography feels innovative and forward-thinking, avoiding any semblance of nostalgia or outdated styles. Moreover, the project thoughtfully explores how typography can be interpreted across different regions, showcasing a keen understanding of cultural nuances.”
Rather than just a simple font family, Playwrite is a typeface engine that allows the creation of primary school fonts. The font families are the practical result of the ongoing three-year research project, Primarium, which studies handwriting instruction methodologies around the world. Its findings informed the design of the family with regards to the calligraphic models currently in use, their development, and rationale. The free Playwrite family includes static and variable fonts, support for over 150 Latin-based languages, Vietnamese, and stylistic sets with a combination of eight letter variations ranging from a precursive model to mirrored loops, different degrees of slant, plus idiosyncratic glyph variants, totalling 51 fonts that represent the current teaching models in 40 countries worldwide.
TypeTogether would again like to thank the Joseph Binder Awards, the jury, and the participants for all their hard work! Download the entire Playwrite family for free to use in handwriting lessons, or get to know more about Playwrite, its amazing capabilities, and the Primarium project now.
Photographs by F. Jana Madzigon.
TypeTogether is an indie type foundry committed to excellence in type design with a focus on editorial use. Additionally, TypeTogether creates custom type design for corporate use. We invite you to browse our library of retail fonts or contact us to discuss custom type design projects.
