The Northern Block scores a win in the Type Directors Club (TDC69) competition for type family Fagun.

Amongst the best type designers in the world, The Northern Block has been awarded the prestigious Certificate of Typographic Excellence at TDC69 with our type family Fagun.

The world’s longest-running, most prestigious global typography and type design competition—TDC69, by the Type Directors Club, saw entries from 77 countries and winners from 42. Now in its 69th year, the awards celebrate how letterforms are used and drawn, and recognise typographic excellence in all global languages.

The award means Fagun will be published in the highly respected annual of the Type Director’s Club—‘The World’s Best Typography, Typography 44’ and showcased in eight globally touring exhibitions, including the 69th Awards Exhibition in New York.

Fagun was designed by Jonathan Hill and released by The Northern Block in 2022. It is a humanist sans-serif with calligraphic roots in 14 styles, ranging from Light to Black, with matching italics. The method combines broad nib pen-style strokes with straight-line geometry to form a compelling and coherent typeface suitable for long lines of text. Each character has the right balance of diagonal contrast, which creates a pleasant contradiction between internal and external lines. The result is an original design with incredible clarity and usability across many text-based scenarios.

To support Fagun’s release, The Northern Block produced a limited edition 44-page printed newspaper specimen designed by Donna Wearmouth. The concept is inspired by Charles Dickens’ novels and characters, with the font’s name an intentional misspelling of Fagin—the mastermind villain from Oliver Twist. The printed specimen provides a thorough overview of the type families’ capabilities, and the extensive OpenType features available to its users.

Entries were received from 77 countries this year, the most in TDC’s 77-year history, with winners from 42. The top five countries for winners are the United States with 52, followed by Germany with 24, China with 23, the Netherlands with 11, and Ukraine with nine.

Fagun is available to buy here, where you can also access free trial fonts. Variable fonts are included on Full Family purchases. Or, you can activate Fagun on Adobe Fonts as part of your Creative Cloud subscription.

The Fagun Newspaper Specimen can be purchased here for £12.