Albert-Jan Pool (born 1960) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. After his study, he moved for Germany. From 1987 to 1991, he was Type Director at

Scangraphic Scangraphic is a division of Dr. Böger Duplomat Apparate GmbH & Co.KG, based in Wedel near Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by Bernd Holthusen and Knut Schmiedl. Mannesmann AG acquired Scangraphic in 1989, and the company was renamed Mannesmann ...

Wedel Wedel is a town in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, approximately south of Elmshorn, and west of Hamburg. History Foundation and Middle Ages The first known mention of ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. 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 d ...

. 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 FF DIN is a sans-serif typeface in the industrial or "grotesque" style. It was designed in 1995 by Albert-Jan Pool, based on DIN-Mittelschrift and DIN-Engschrift, as defined in the German standard DIN 1451. DIN is an acronym for ''Deutsches Inst ...

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 DIN 1451 is a sans-serif typeface that is widely used for traffic, administrative and technical applications. It was defined by the German standards body DIN (, 'German Institute for Standardisation', pronounced like the English word ''din'') i ...

. 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 Muthesius Academy of Art (German: ''Muthesius Kunsthochschule'') is an art school and is located in the city of Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The school was named for architect Hermann Muthesius. The school was founded in 1907 as an 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 Start

How German is the DIN typeface? – Fahren, fahren, fahren at the Autobahn

References

External links

FF DIN Microsite by FontShop

Digital Block Letters, a brochure on round sans serif typefaces and FF DIN Round by Albert-Jan Pool

Special in Encore Magazine: Interview with Albert-Jan Pool

Biography of Albert-Jan Pool in English at FontFont.com

Biography 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