Yuntong Sun Is Honored with the Bronze A' Design Award for Whoatemytofu Typography in Social Design

Yuntong Sun honored for social design by the international grand jury of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 22, 2022 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Whoatemytofu Typography by Yuntong Sun has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Social Design category. The award was conferred within the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the Bronze A' Design Award Means

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

Regarding Whoatemytofu Typography

Whoatemytofu is a social design project built around an open-source typeface named The Tofu Type. The name refers to a Chinese proverb that uses eating tofu as a metaphor for sexual harassment. The letterforms were shaped by the process of cutting tofu, and the negative spaces recall the cut material. The project also includes a poster series and a website concept. Visitors can enter hurtful words heard during harassment and receive a poster to share on social media with a hashtag. The typeface can be downloaded free of charge. The aim is to give victims a voice and a sense of unity.

About Yuntong Sun

Yuntong Sun graduated from Beijing University of Technology 2016 in Beijing China with An undergraduate degree of visual communication, and she graduated from Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany with a master's degree in Visual Communication in 2021. Yuntong is a young designer in fields of visual communication, graphic and typography. She received the Taiwan Golden Pin Design Award for her undergraduate final design in 2018 and was awarded with the B100C Master Scholarship at Bauhaus University Weimar during her graduate studies in 2020.

Award Record

Yuntong Sun is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Social Design Award

The A' Social Design Award is an international design competition recognizing excellence in social design by social impact designers and think-tanks worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to social designers, social brands, social manufacturers and social design professionals from all countries. Typical entries include community projects, social campaigns, public installations, educational programs, sustainable initiatives and healthcare solutions. The awarded social designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/social

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/127987
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/127987
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!127987
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/309200

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Whoatemytofu Typography
Function: Typography
Category: Social Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Social Impact
Colors: Steel Blue, Dark Slate Blue, Light Slate Gray, Lavender and White Smoke
Images: 5

The Recognition

Laureate: Yuntong Sun
Country: Germany
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2021 - 2022
Design ID: #127987

Design Details

Unique Properties: Invoking the metaphorical concept of eating tofu, this Project created an open type font design inspired by Tofu. In combination with the influence of social media hashtags and came up with the #whoatemytofu headline and web production poster concept. We aim to use the power of Typography to offer people a new possibility to fight against sexual harassment and make them feel that they are not alone.
Inspiration: "Eating Tofu" is a Chinese proverb and a metaphor for sexual harassment. WhoAteMyTofu is inspired by this metaphor and it is aims to arouse people's curiosity and attract more attention. Graphic design as well as typography can be a tool for social change. As a woman myself, I think this project is not only a visual design support for victims of sexual harassment and a new way for them to fight against it. It is also a platform for them to speak out and feel united: You are not alone.
Research: I interviewed dozens of people who had experienced sexual harassment before the design began. In addition to blatant acts of sexual harassment, there are also many acts in life that are not easily recognized and are easily overlooked, making it difficult to defend the rights of victims. Unlike the usual forms of protest, this project connects people to fight against sexual harassment through an extraordinary design by collecting and exposing the hurtful words used in sexual harassment.
Challenge: The research challenges of the project are threefold. First is the font design. Like Tofu's typeface design, this form connects the material and spiritual worlds, it is like a symbol, is a sense of connectedness that is empowering. The type design process is a big challenge as it requires not only constantly improving the readability of fonts, but also making them look like tofu. Next is the interaction and visual design of the website, Although it is only a concept design, the overall web design is already very well developed, such as how users input, how to get the poster, the design of static and dynamic posters, how to download and use TOFU TYPE, etc.
Realization and Technology: In order to make the whole project highly recognizable, the font design, the poster and the web design were all designed around the element of Tofu. I designed an open-source typeface design for this project, called The Tofu Type, which was also one of the most important parts of the project. Since fonts have always played an important role in protests, more and more designers have designed open-source fonts for social movements. The idea of this typeface design is derived from the process of cutting tofu and the shape of the negative space of the letters was obtained by the process of cutting tofu.
Operation and Interaction: Users can enter hurtful words they have heard when they were being sexually harassed on the "Make your own poster" page and get a designed poster that they can share on their social media, tagging the hashtag#WhoAteMyTofu. Users can also download and use the tofu typeface design for free on the site, which is also inspired by the Chinese metaphor for Eating Tofu.
Project Duration and Location: The project is my graduation project and will be completed at Bauhaus University Weimar in March 2021.
Specifications: Poster, 1350px*1080px
Keywords: against sexual harassment, Typeface design, Website concept design, Protest, Social Media