Roxane Gataud Named Winner of 2016 Catalyst Award

The Society of Typographic Aficionados has announced that Roxane Gataud of Paris, France will be the recipient of the 2016 SOTA Catalyst Award. Created in 2010, the award recognizes a person 25 years of age or younger who demonstrates significant achievement and future promise in the field of typography. Roxane will present her work and receive the award at TypeCon2016, taking place this summer in Seattle, Washington.

About The Winner

Roxane Gataud, 25Paris, FranceRoxane Gataud studied Graphic Design at the École Estienne School of Paris where she discovered her great interest in type design. She went on to earn a Masters in Graphic Design at the École Supérieure D’Arts Appliqués (ÉSAAB) in Bourgogne, France and a Post Graduate Degree in Typeface Design from École Supérieure d’Art et de Design (ÉSAD) in Amiens, France.Type was always at the centre of Roxane’s work, but a graduate project in which she designed a poetry book utilizing both Latin and Arabic scripts is what led her to pursue studies into typeface design. “I couldn’t find a satisfactory pairing between Latin and Arabic typefaces. That was when I knew I wanted to design typefaces for my own projects instead of using existing ones.”, relates Gataud. From that experience, Roxane designed her first typeface Bely, which was chosen by the Czech type foundry TypeTogether for their Incentive Program and was recently released by the foundry.Now working as an independent designer, Roxane has collaborated with the French type foundries Type Factory, Production Type, and Typofonderie. When she is not developing typefaces for other designers, Roxane designs her own typefaces. She lives in Paris where she also collects fruit labels, dinosaurs, and pictures of type in the wild.A panel of notable and experienced judges selected Gataud from among numerous talented and brilliant young creative people from all over the world. Here is what a couple of the judges had to say:

“I think Roxane Gataud is an excellent choice. Her work is diverse, systematic, excellently documented, shows great depth and an unfailing eye for the music of typography.”

“Roxane’s achievements are balanced out over various aspects of typography, and presented in a well-rounded, convincing overview.”

SOTA wishes to express a sincere “Thank you.” to the judges and everyone who participated in the 2016 Catalyst Award and to encourage their continued efforts.