GRANSHAN has been running type design competitions for scripts beyond Latin since 2008. Thirteen editions. Fifteen conferences. Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Devanagari, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and many others.

Over those years, something changed. The quality of non-Latin typefaces improved. Dramatically. Designers across the world built better fonts, better systems, better tools. The landscape that existed when GRANSHAN started looks nothing like what's out there today.

So a new question came up: now that the typefaces exist, what happens with them? Who's using them well? Who's making posters, packaging, apps, campaigns, exhibitions that treat these scripts with the same care that went into designing the fonts?

That question became Bloom.

The names tell the story. Base is the foundation: the typeface itself. Bloom is what grows from it: design that uses typography to communicate in the real world.

Base

Base is the type design competition. It looks at the font: glyph construction, spacing, rhythm, how scripts work together inside a type system. You'd submit a typeface, a type family, a multiscript system, a revival, a custom font. Student or professional.

The judging question: how well is this typeface designed?

Base returns in 2027.

Bloom

Bloom is the communication design award. It looks at typefaces in use: posters, campaigns, packaging, apps, motion, exhibitions, branding, editorial, experimental work. A script beyond Latin has to be central to the project. Not decorative, not an afterthought.

The judging question: what does this design communicate, and how does the script shape that message?

Every Bloom entry is reviewed by experts who read the script. 150+ jurors organized into 8 Script Groups. 9 media categories. No ranking: every Bloom Award is equal. Top 50 chosen as Best of the Best by an international Grand Jury.

Bloom is open for submissions.

The two competitions alternate. Bloom runs in 2025/2026. Base returns in 2027. One asks how well the typeface is made. The other asks how well it's used.

If your project is a font, Base.
If your project is design that uses a font, Bloom.