In 2014 Fundacja Miasto Literatury (The City of Literature Foundation) and Fundacja Wisławy Szymborskiej (The Wisława Szymborska Foundation), in cooperation with Fundacja Sztuki Nowej ZNACZY SIĘ (The ZNACZY SIĘ New Art Foundation), organized an International Type Design Competition for a new typeface dedicated to Szymborska. The poet herself was atuned to the needs of young makers of culture at the beginning of their literary careers. Therefore, the competition was aimed at students and recent graduates who are at the start of their artistic journeys.
The aim of the Competition was to select a typeface that will reflect the spirit of Szymborska’s poetry. The Nobel Prize Committee (in 1996) described her poetry as "poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."
In November 2014, the international Jury of the Competition – Ewa Satalecka (Head of Jury), Pilar Cano, Verena Gerlach, Martin Majoor and Robert Oleś awarded the prize to Radosław Łukasiewicz of Poland. Mr Łukasiewicz, born in 1989 in Kalisz, Poland, graduated with distinction from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of Fine Arts. He currently works as a graphic designer with a focus on typography. Łukasiewicz participated in individual and collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
There are four variants of the winning Szymborska typeface: Regular, Regular Bold, Italics, Italics Bold. Szymborska has all characters necessary to set a continuous text.
The Szymborska typeface is available free of charge. To obtain the typeface, please contact Fundacja Wisławy Szymborskiej (www.szymborska.org.pl) at biuro.fws@gmail.com or Fundacja Miasto Literatury (www.fundacjamiastoliteratury.pl) at biuro@fundacjamiastoliteratury.pl.
Samples of the Szymborska typeface are available on the Competition website/gallery.