Typography Award Presented to Gerard Unger

The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) has announced that Dutch type designer, author, and educator Gerard Unger has been honored with the 2009 SOTA Typography Award. The presentation took place on Friday, July 17, 2009, at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, as part of TypeCon2009.The 67-year-old Unger of Bussum, The Netherlands is the designer of such well-known typefaces as Swift, Gulliver, and Capitolium. He is a visiting professor at the University of Reading in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, and has also taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, and the University of Leiden. In addition to his work in type design, Unger has designed stamps, coins, magazines, newspapers, books, corporate identities, and other projects.Unger was the unanimous choice of the 2009 jury, which included designers and educators Sam Berlow, Nadine Chahine, John Downer, Hank Richardson, Juliet Shen, and jury chair Shu-Yun Reed Lai.Unger’s tribute took place as part of the TypeCon2009 conference, a week-long celebration of type and lettering in all its forms. He has won several other major prizes for his type design, and has written for magazines and other publications. His book “Terwijl je leest” was published in 1995 and updated in 2006, with a new English edition (“While You’re Reading”) published in 2006.Unger was chosen to receive SOTA’s seventh annual award due to his outstanding and diverse body of work in type design, his history of teaching and mentoring, his thoughtful authorship, his influence on countless designers, and his standing as a respected leader of the global typographic community.The SOTA Typography Award is presented each year to an outstanding member of the type community. Past recipients include Hermann Zapf, Ed Benguiat, Matthew Carter, Adrian Frutiger, David Berlow, and Gerrit Noordzij.Photo Copyright © Eben Sorkin. All rights reserved.