Jan V. White (1928-2014) was an American designer,

communication design Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media communicate with people. A communication design approach is not only concerned with developing the message in addition to the ...

consultant, and

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

educator and writer. Czech by birth, he was educated in England at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, havin ...

and held degrees in architecture from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. From 1951 to 1964 he worked on two of

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

's architectural magazines:

Architectural Forum ''Architectural Forum'' was an American magazine that covered the homebuilding industry and architecture. Started in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1892 as ''The Brickbuilder'', it absorbed the magazine ''Architect's World'' in October 1938. Ownership ...

(1951–56) as associate art director, and House & Home (1956-1964) as art director. Since 1964 he has worked as a designer, design consultant, writer and teacher. He redesigned more than 200 publications on four continents, and influenced many more with his books and articles about design for print. Initially focused on periodical design, in the mid-1980s White brought his analysis of the

visual rhetoric Visual rhetoric is the art of effective communication through visual elements such as images, typography, and texts. Visual rhetoric encompasses the skill of visual literacy and the ability to analyze images for their form and meaning. Drawing on ...

of structure, white space and

typographic Typography is the art and technique of typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

hierarchy to bear on corporate publishing in a way that shared common ground with

information design Information design is the practice of presenting information in a way that fosters an efficient and effective understanding of the information. The term has come to be used for a specific area of graphic design related to displaying information ...

. As an educator 'his most valued contribution for people trying to learn how to design has been his articulation, in very clear and easy-to-follow language, what publication design is about; and his insistence that it is not a mystery, but a rational activity of manipulating the elements of a publication in order to achieve certain defined communication outcomes.' 'White was an early proponent of the idea of design as being more than "good looks".' Author of more than a dozen books on editorial design including the 1974 landmark work, "Editing by Design" in which he first presented his original thesis that design is a clarifying tool rather than a decorative tool. "Editing by Design" is now in its fourth edition (co-authored by his son Alex W. White) and has been in continuous publication since 1974. In 2012, he dedicated several of his design books to the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. He was the son of the illustrator and architect Emil Weiss, and the father of the designer, writer and educator Alex W White. He is buried in New Canaan, Connecticut and is survived by his four sons and seven grandchildren.

Published work

As author: * ''Editing by Design: Word-and-Picture Communication for Editors and Designers'', RR Bowker Company, 1974 : (revised as Editing by Design", Second Edition", RR Bowker Company, 1982) : (revised as "Editing by Design: For Designers, Art Directors, and Editors--the Classic Guide to Winning Readers'', Third Edition, Allworth Press, 2003) : (revised as "Editing by Design: The classic guide to word and picture communication for art directors, editors, designers, and students", Fourth Edition, Allworth Press, 2020) * ''Designing covers, contents, flash forms, departments, editorials, openers, products for magazines'', RR Bowker Company, 1976 * ''Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems'', Watson-Guptill, 1980 (2nd edition 1991) : (revised as ''Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems'', Allworth Press, 2004) * ''On Graphics: Tips for Editors'', Lawrence Ragan Communications, 1981 * ''Designing for Magazines: Common Problems, Realistic Solutions'', RR Bowker Company, 1982 * ''Mastering Graphics : Design and Production Made Easy'', RR Bowker Company, 1983 * ''Using Charts and Graphs'', RR Bowker Company, 1984 * ''The Grid Book: A Guide to Page Planning'', Letraset, 1987 * ''Graphic Design for the Electronic Age'', Watson-Guptill, 1988 * ''Xerox Publishing Standards: A Manual of Style and Design'', Xerox Press / Watson-Guptill, 1988 * ''Thoughts on Publication Design'', JRS, 1989 * ''Graphic Idea Triggers'' * ''Color for the Electronic Age'', Watson-Guptill, 1990 * ''Great Pages: A Common-Sense Approach to Effective Desktop Design'', Serif, 1991 * ''Color for Impact: How Color Can Get Your Message Across or Get in the Way'', Strathmoor, 1997 As designer: * ''The Place of the Arts in New Towns. A Report'', Educational Facilities Laboratories, 1973 * Jeanne M. Davern (editor), ''Places for people: hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, clubs, community recreation facilities, camps, parks, plazas, playgrounds : examples of outstanding achievement / selected for publication by the editors of Architectural record'', McGraw-Hill, 1976

References

External links

Jan V. White
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Jan V. 1928 births 2014 deaths American graphic designers American typographers and type designers Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni Czech emigrants to the United States Design educators