Jack Yan (; born 1972) is a New Zealand publisher, designer and businessman. He is best known as the founder and publisher of ''

Lucire ''Lucire'' ( , ; ) is a fashion magazine that originally began on the web in 1997, before adding a monthly print edition in its home country of New Zealand in 2004, and is now published seasonally, with a monthly for licensees. It is the first fa ...

''. He ran for mayor of Wellington in 2010, and again in 2013, but was unsuccessful in both elections.

Background

Yan was born in

Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...

, Hong Kong, and emigrated to

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, with his parents in 1976. He attended

St Mark's Church School St Mark's School is an independent Anglican co-educational school in Wellington, New Zealand for children aged from two (Early Childhood) to Year 8. The school is often seen on cricket match broadcasts from Basin Reserve. To its front is the mod ...

(where he was Dux) and Scots College, and graduated from

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

with three degrees – two in business and one in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. Aside from English, Yan speaks

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, French, and

Taishanese Taishanese (), alternatively romanized in Cantonese as Toishanese or Toisanese, in local dialect as Hoisanese or Hoisanwa, is a Yue Chinese language native to Taishan, Guangdong. Even though they are related, Taishanese has little mutual i ...

Career

Business ventures

Beginning in the 1980s, Yan created over 100 typeface designs himself for his firm, Jack Yan & Associates and was New Zealand's first digital typeface designer. He encouraged other local typeface designers such as

Kris Sowersby The Klim Type Foundry is a digital type foundry operated by Kris Sowersby, a New Zealand typeface designer. Klim was founded in 2005 and is currently based in Wellington. Klim produces retail typefaces, custom typefaces and custom lettering and l ...

to pursue careers in that industry. His typefaces include Ætna, a revival of

Bembo Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Imaging, Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the "Serif#Old-style, old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or ro ...

. He also helms a consulting firm, and is co-chair of the Medinge Group

think-tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

. In 1997, he founded ''

'', a

fashion magazine Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on journalism, writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about and critique fashion events and trends as well as cultivate and maintain relationships with stylists and ...

that added print editions after starting on the web, and serves as its publisher. From 2007 to 2012, he was a judge for

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international major beauty pageant that is run by a Thailand and Mexican-based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stree ...

New Zealand, and became a director of the licensee firm that took over in 2013. In 2008, he founded the online car encyclopedia ''Autocade'', which he then extended into a print version in 2023.

Writings and media

Yan was a contributor to ''Visual Arts Trends'' in New York (1999–2001), ''The Journal of Brand Management'' in London (2003–11), and ''Desktop'' magazine in Australia (1996–2010). Web publications that he has written for include UK-based ''Fontzone'' and ''DZ3''. He was a founding contributor to Allaboutbranding.com (from 2002). Additionally, he writes for his own publications, ''CAP'' and ''Lucire''. He contributed chapters to ''Beyond Branding'' (2003) and ''Brands with a Conscience'' (2016), wrote ''Typography and Branding'' (2004), and ghost-wrote Greek designer

Panos Papadopoulos Panos Papadopoulos (born 1958 in Kertezi, Greece) is the founder, designer and entrepreneur behind Panos Emporio AB, established 1986 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the largest swimwear supplier in Scandinavia. He is known as the "King of Swimwear". He ...

's autobiography, ''Panos: My Life, My Odyssey'' (2022), for which they won a Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards 2023. He followed that up with the biographical ''Lilla boken om Panos: historien om den ikoniska badmodedesignern'' (2024) in Sweden. From 3 March 2006, he began a weekly spot on TV One's ''Good Morning'', discussing men's issues, but resigned from that role in 2007. In 2020, he started as a regular panellist on

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...

's ''The Panel''. He is better known outside New Zealand for his work; he has been interviewed by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, ''

Business 2.0 ''Business 2.0'' was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the " New Economy". First published in July 1998, the magazine was sold ...

'' and the UK's ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''.

Politics

In the 2008 general election Yan stood as a candidate on the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

party list, but no candidates for the Alliance were elected. He was a candidate in Wellington's 2010 mayoral election, and stood again in the 2013 elections.

Books

*''Beyond Branding: How the New Values of Transparency and Integrity Are Changing the World of Brands'', with

Nicholas Ind Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In turn, the name ...

(editor), Malcolm Allan,

Simon Anholt Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor who has worked to help develop and implement strategies for enhanced economic, political and cultural engagement with other countries. He is the founder of the Good Country Index. Anholt has been ...

, 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, ; 2005 paperback edition, Kogan Page, . *''Viewpoint: Perspectives on 21st Century Branding: User Seductive''; 2004, Wai-te-ata Press. *''Typography and Branding''; 2004, Natcoll Publishing. *''Brands with a Conscience: How to Build a Successful and Responsible Brand'', with

(editor), Malcolm Allan, Enric Bernal, Peter Brown, Giuseppe Cavallo, Thomas Gad, Ava Hakim, Sudhir John Horo, Oriol Iglesias, Philippe Mihailovich, Simon Paterson, Annette Rosencreutz, Cristián Saracco, Nikolaj Stagis, Brigitte Stepputtis, and Erika Uffindell; 2016, Kogan Page, . *''Panos: My Life, My Odyssey'', with

; 2022, LID Publishing, . *''Autocade Yearbook 2024'', 2023, JY&A Media, . *''Lilla boken om Panos: historien om den ikoniska badmodedesignern'', with

; 2024, Tukan förlag, . *''Autocade Year of Cars 2025'', 2024, JY&A Media, .

References

External links

* *
Interview with Yan on his type design career (in French)

Interview with Yan on publishing ''Lucire'' (in French)

Interview with Yan on publishing ''Lucire''
(in German)
''B&T Marketing and Media'' interview with Yan on his publishing work (PDF)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Jack Living people New Zealand businesspeople New Zealand Confucianists New Zealand people of Chinese descent New Zealand people of Hong Kong descent New Zealand typographers and type designers Victoria University of Wellington alumni People educated at Scots College, Wellington Hong Kong emigrants to New Zealand 1972 births Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians People from Kowloon Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election