65 Fan Letters & Numbers to the TDC

Sixty-five designers created sixty-five numbers to honor the Type Directors Club’s 65th anniversary. They’re all available in a new book.

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Here is what some of the designers had to say about their contributions:

#4 — Ed Benguiat: “After days of sketching and drawing I hated everything I did. ‘Why did I even get involved?’ It started to become an obsession with me. Maybe I should call TDC and tell them, ‘My brain fell out. Why don’t I just make a beautiful 4 and get it over with?’ Okay! Please forgive me, I know I could have done better, but ‘THIS IS IT.'”
#9 — James de Vries “I made an “anti-aliased” nine from Lego blocks. It is 27 dots by 27 dots (nine dots x nine dots x nine). Lego was first marketed in 1955, the ninth year of the TDC. Once I realized nine meant ‘nine’, not ‘nein’, suddenly the world was all nines; Cloud 9, Route 9, Nine West, agent 99, Neunundneunzigluftballon, Nine Inch Nails, etc. Stencils, pencils, spirals, matrixes and blocks. Nine is my new favorite number. Congratulations TDC.”
#42 — Erik Speikermann: “In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adam a large computer is faced with the question what the purpose of our existence is, the meaning of life. After years of computation, the machine comes back with the answer: ’42’. As I just received the TDC medal for lifetime achievement, to get an invitation to supply a number for the anniversary book is like getting a call from a good friend. You answer it immediately and look forward to the conversation.”
#51 — Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich: “The first thing that came to mind when I saw the number was Area 51, the military base in Nevada, center of conspiracy theories and UFO sightings. It resonated with me because I am a resident alien as well. Hello, mothership! The first time I got into the TDC Annual a voice in the back of my head kept saying ‘We accept you! We accept you! One of us! One of us! Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble!,’ as in the movie Freaks.”
See all the numbers by these designers in the book:
- 1 — Ken Barber
- 2 — Shinnoske Sugisaki
- 3 — Patrick Bittner
- 4 — Ed Benguiat
- 5 — Debra Bishop and Lilian Cohen
- 6 — Cyrus Highsmith
- 7 — Ryan Pescatore Frisk and Catelijne van Middelkoop
- 8 — Gerard Huerta
- 9 — James DeVries
- 10 — Michael Beirut
- 11 — Marian Bantjes
- 12 — Graham Clifford
- 13 — Seymour Chwast
- 14 — Rodrigo Sanchez
- 15 — Garth Walker
- 16 — Olaf Leu
- 17 — Emily Oberman and Bonnie Seigler
- 18 — Akira Kobayashi
- 19 — Ale Paul
- 20 — Alex Isley
- 21 — Niklaus Troxler
- 22 — Sharon Werner
- 23 — Neville Brody
- 24 — Louis Gagnon
- 25 — Charles Nix
- 26 — Dave Farey
- 27 — Niessen & de Vries
- 28 — Daniel Pelavin
- 29 — Rubén Fontana
- 30 — Gabriel Martinez
- 31 — Janet Froelich
- 32 — Jakob Trollbäck
- 33 — Ivan Chermayeff
- 34 — Nancy Rouemy
- 35 — Underware
- 36 — Park Kum Jun
- 37 — Nancy Harris Rouemy
- 38 — Emigrev
- 39 — Kit Hinrichs
- 40 — George Lois
- 41 — Massimo Vignelli
- 42 — Erik Speikermann
- 43 — Erkki Ruuhinen
- 44 — Sonya Dyakova
- 45 — Louise Fili
- 46 — Jean Francois Porchez
- 47 — Milton Glaser
- 48 — Henrik Kubel
- 49 — Paula Scher
- 50 — Bai zhiwei
- 51 — Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich
- 52 — Sumner Stone
- 53 — Carin Goldberg
- 54 — Fred Woodward
- 55 — Oswaldo Miranda (Miran)
- 56 — Joe Duffy
- 57 — Gail Anderson
- 58 — Alan Peckolick and Tony DiSpigna
- 59 — Mirko Ilic
- 60 — Design Army
- 61 — Matthew Carter
- 62 — Woody Pirtle and Lucas Pirtle
- 63 — Adrian Frutiger
- 64 — Jessica Hische
- 65 — Hermann Zapf