Welsh projects receive honors in international competition

This interactive sculpture by Craig Welsh was honored in the Type Directors Club's annual type-design competition.

The “Inviting Hische” license plate project invited graphic designer Jennifer Hische to speak at the Society of Design.

Two graphic design projects directed by Craig Welsh, assistant professor of communications and humanities, have been named winners in the Type Directors Club’s (TDC) annual type-design competition.

The New York-based TDC chose Welsh’s license plate project “Inviting Hische” and an interactive sculpture project from more than 2,000 entries from 37 countries to represent the best in typography, or the use of type in graphic design. The works will be featured in the club’s annual typography publication and as part of exhibitions across 12 countries.

Welsh oversaw “Inviting Hische,” created by his Lancaster-based design studio, Go Welsh, for the Society of Design (SOD), an educational nonprofit Welsh founded. The project invited graphic designer Jennifer Hische to speak at its annual speaker series. See the finished work.

The undertaking required the registration of 27 Pennsylvania custom license plates that, when ordered side by side, formed the invitation phrasing. The plates were nailed to a large wooden door and photographed to create the final product. With help from 35 volunteers across the state – 9 of whom were Penn State Harrisburg administrators, faculty, students, and alumni, the work took more than three months to complete.

Hische will speak at the Harrisburg Whitaker Center on March 14 as a result of the invitation. She has done work for clients including film director Wes Anderson, Tiffany & Co., The New York Times, Penguin Books, and Target. She has been named in Forbes 30 under 30 in Art and Design and in Print Magazine’s New Visual Artist (20 under 30).

The interactive sculpture, also created by Go Welsh, was created for Poetry Paths, a Lancaster-based initiative to promote literary and visual art in the local community. The project is currently housed at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster.