Jack Yan (; born 1972) is a New Zealand publisher, designer and businessman. He is best known as the founder and publisher of '' Lucire''. 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 an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

, Hong Kong, and emigrated to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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 second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

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

St Mark's Church School , motto_translation = Make your mark every day , denomination = Anglican Church of Australia , type = Private, Independent Christian school , established = , staff = 46 , address = 13 Dufferin Street , region = Basi ...

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

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kn ...

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,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Aside from English, Yan speaks

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

, French, and

Taishanese Taishanese (), alternatively romanized in Cantonese as Toishanese or Toisanese, in local dialect as Hoisanese or Hoisan-wa, is a dialect of Yue Chinese native to Taishan, Guangdong. Although it is related to Cantonese, Taishanese has littl ...

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 kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its disti ...

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 Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the " old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or roman style based on a design cut ar ...

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

think-tank A think tank, or 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-governmental ...

. In 1997, he founded '' Lucire'', a

fashion magazine Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about fashion events, trends and have to cultivate and maintain a relationship with stylists and designers. A fashion journ ...

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 beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall St ...

New Zealand, and became a director of the licensee firm that took over in 2013. In 2008, he founded the online car encyclopedia ''Autocade''.

Writings and media

Yan was a contributor to ''Visual Arts Trends'' in New York (1999–2001), ''The Journal of Brand Management'' in London (2003–04), 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), and ghost-wrote Greek designer Panos Papadopoulos's autobiography, ''Panos: My Life, My Odyssey'' (2022). 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 ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and cu ...

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

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 national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''.

Politics

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

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

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 (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 Nicholas Ind (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 Panos Papadopoulos; 2022, LID Publishing, .

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 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