Albert-Jan Pool (born 1960)
is a
Dutch type designer
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
and educator.
Biography
Albert-Jan Pool was born in 1960 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
He studied at the
Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.
After his study, he moved to Germany. From 1987 to 1991, he was Type Director at
Scangraphic in
Wedel
Wedel () is a town in the Pinneberg (district), district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, approximately south of Elmshorn, and west of Hamburg.
History
Foundation and Mi ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. From 1991 to 1994, he was Manager of Type Design and Production at
URW Type Foundry
URW Type Foundry GmbH (formerly URW++ Design & Development GmbH) is a type foundry based in Hamburg, Germany. The foundry has its own library with more than 500 font families. The company specializes in customized corporate typefaces and the dev ...
. During this time he completed his type families URW Imperial, URW Linear and URW Mauritius.
By January 1995, he started his own studio Dutch Design.
FF DIN and FF OCR-F were among his first typeface design projects. He also created the
Jet Set Sans,
C&A InfoType, DTL HEIN GAS and HEM Headline corporate typefaces. In 2010 he extended his typeface family FF DIN with FF DIN Round and wrote ‘Digital Block Letters’ a small brochure on the history of round sans serif typefaces and the development of FF DIN Round, which was published by FontShop International in 2010.
In 1999, Pool co-founded the design agency FarbTon Konzept + Design. During his time with FarbTon he created the Regenbogen Bold typeface as well as DTL HeinGas Headline. He left FarbTon at the end of 2005.
By January 2006 he started publishing his findings on the history of the German standard typefaces as defined in
DIN 1451. Since 2007 he is working on his doctoral thesis on the history of constructed sans serif typefaces in Germany, which is tutorized by prof. Gerard Unger of Leiden University.
He has been teaching type design at the
Muthesius Academy of Art starting in 1995,
as well as typography at the HAMM Hanseatische Akademie für Marketing und Medien (
Hanseatic Academy for Marketing and Media) from 1996 to 1999.
In 2011, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) decided to extend its collection of applied arts by digital typefaces. Typeface FF DIN was amongst the first set of 23 typefaces which were collected by MoMa.
Bibliography
Together with type-consultant Stefan Rögener and copywriter Ursula Packhäuser, he wrote and designed a book on the effects of typefaces on brand image entitled ‘Branding with Type’, which has been published by Adobe Press in 1995.
He has written a series of articles about the origins of the DIN typeface, published in the e-magazine 'Encore', issues 13-15, 17-18.
Industrial Archeology – DIN, the first German Corporate Typeface? The Constructivist Connection – DIN, Bauhaus and the New Typography
Siemens sets a Standard – DIN 1451 on its way up DIN for All: From the Economic Miracle to Art and Vernacular Typography – FF DIN: New at the StartHow German is the DIN typeface? – Fahren, fahren, fahren at the Autobahn
References
External links
FF DIN Microsite by FontShopDigital Block Letters, a brochure on round sans serif typefaces and FF DIN Round by Albert-Jan PoolSpecial in Encore Magazine: Interview with Albert-Jan PoolBiography of Albert-Jan Pool in English at FontFont.comBiography of Albert-Jan Pool in German at typografie.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pool, Albert-Jan
1960 births
Living people
Dutch graphic designers
Dutch typographers and type designers
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni
Designers from Amsterdam