Jack Yan
Jack Yan ("爵恩,
Pinyin: Zh"n Jué"n) is a
publisher,
designer and
businessman, born
1972 in
Kowloon,
Hong Kong. A child of
Kuomintang (KMT) supporters, Jack Yan emigrated to
Wellington,
New Zealand with his parents in the mid-1970s, and graduated from
Victoria University of Wellington with
business and
law degrees. Jack Yan founded his own company in
1987 while a teenager and grew it, initially, into the region's leading
font software firm, claiming to be the first
New Zealander to design digital typefaces. He created over 100
typeface designs himself for the firm. In
1997, he founded
Lucire, a
fashion magazine that made the move from web to print, and serves as its
publisher. He also helms a consulting firm, where he wrote of the connection between
business and
spirituality, and is a director of the
Medinge Group think-tank.
He is a distant relative of
Chinese American TV
chef Martin Yan and believed to be related to author
Leslie Charteris (b. Leslie Bowyer-Yin). Many
Australians in the design industry know him for his regular columns in
Desktop magazine, which he began writing in
1996.
From
2006, he began a regular weekly spot on TV One's
Good Morning, discussing men's issues.
Yan speaks
Cantonese but considers his heritage to be
Taishanese.
Beyond Branding: How the New Values of Transparency and Integrity Are Changing the World of Brands, with Nicholas Ind (editor), Malcolm Allan, Simon Anholt, Julie Anixter, John Caswell, Thomas Gad, Sicco van Gelder, Tim Kitchin, Chris Macrae, Denzil Meyers, Alan Mitchell, John Moore, Ian Ryder; 2003, 2004 reprint edition, Kogan Page, ISBN 0749441151; 2005 paperback edition, Kogan Page, ISBN 0749443995.
Viewpoint: Perspectives on 21st Century Branding: User Seductive; 2004, Wai-te-ata Press.
Typography and Branding; 2004, Natcoll Publishing.
*
Official site*
IMDb entry on Yan*
Interview with Yan on his type design career (in French)*
B&T Marketing and Media interview with Yan on his publishing work (PDF)*
Interviews with Yan on branding (MP3 files)
