Dear GRANSHAN community,
At the end of our last Weekly, after we had decided to significantly change our plans for the GRANSHAN Bloom Award, our young Indonesian colleague Felicia said something that has stayed with me: "Let's please remain optimistic despite everything."
In recent weeks, we have had intensive conversations with friends, colleagues and partners around the world – and of course with those in countries directly affected by the war between the US/Israel and Iran. What we heard confirmed our conviction: GRANSHAN, as a community-driven project, carries a particular responsibility. We cannot continue as if nothing has changed when the lives and working realities of our community are so profoundly disrupted – by this new war itself, by the energy crisis that follows in its wake, and by an economic downturn that in a lot of countries was already building before the first strike.
There is an image that helps me understand the pace of this crisis: a fully loaded oil tanker travels at roughly 18 to 24 kilometres per hour – about the speed of a bicycle. From the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam takes about 19 days; to Tokyo about 20. To Colombo, just a few. That is why the crisis has already arrived in Sri Lanka – with fuel rationing, a four-day working week, and prices up by a third – while in Europe, the tankers dispatched before the Strait of Hormuz was blocked are still arriving. What comes after – or rather, what does not come after – will become visible at different speeds in different parts of the world. And even when things begin to improve, those tankers will still move at the speed of a bicycle. Crisis arrives slowly – and recovery does, too. Many in our community are already living it.
This makes it too early for fixed decisions – and too late for business as usual. We have therefore decided to respond elastically: to adapt our timelines and formats to the realities our community is facing, while keeping GRANSHAN's mission alive and visible. Because that mission – creating visibility for scripts, typefaces and communication design beyond Latin – feels more relevant than ever in times like these.
Our current planning for the GRANSHAN Bloom Award
We are extending the submission period substantially. We are now working towards a deadline of 27 October 2026, with the possibility of further adjustment depending on how the situation develops. Judging will take place from November through January/February. Winners will be announced in the first half of 2027.
Our conference together with ISType
The 10th Istanbul Typography Conference "Globe" – celebrating ISType's 10th anniversary, the Missing Scripts project of ANRT, TT's 20th anniversary and the 1st edition of the GRANSHAN Bloom Awards – will not take place as planned in September 2026. Together with our partners, we have decided to postpone the conference to the first half of 2027, earliest March or April (in careful coordination with other major events in our field, to ensure that none compete for the same attention). We want this event to receive the attention and the participation it deserves – and we are confident that postponing it is the right decision for everyone involved.
The extension of the submission period also gives us the opportunity to deepen the many conversations with partner organisations and universities that we have begun in recent months – conversations that, even amid the crisis, have shown an enormous and undiminished interest in advancing the quality of communication design in the world's many non-Latin scripts. And we are using the time to move forward: in the coming days, you will see a refreshed visual identity for the GRANSHAN Bloom Award – across our website and social media channels – along with a new partner platform that makes all communication materials centrally available. These are not cosmetic changes. They are an expression of what we believe: that preparing the ground, even in uncertain times, is itself an act of optimism.
Yes, I could have wept when Felicia asked us to remain optimistic. And the more I think about it, the more her words feel less like a wish and more like a compass. I want to add: in close, in solidary connection. Our profession can do this. Design is a future-oriented practice. And the future needs design. And without design, there is no future.