“A graphic tradition liberating pedagogy should cover the form of making and thinking , which have been instrumentalized by trade and services, so that they became useful again in the search for conditions that allow a more truly human existence.”
Jan Van Toorn was born in Tiel, Netherlands, on 9 May 1932. Jan started his career as an apprentice at the printer Mulder & Zoom in Amsterdam. In 1949, He attended evening design classes at the Amstredamse Grafische school and in 1950 he continued his studied at the Instituut vow Kunstnijverheidsonderswijs (later Gerrit Rietveld Academy) in Amsterdam. Since1957, Jan Van Toorn worked as a freelance graphic designer. His clients including Hausemann & Hotte in Amsterdam, Instituut vow Voedingsonderzoek TNO in Zeist, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, the Dutch Ministries of Culture and Public Works, the Dutch PTT, Rosbeek Printers and 010 Publishers. He has won several awards such as Werkman Prize (1965 and 1972), the Piet Zwart prize (1985) and the Athena award for career excellence. (New York, 2004)
His methods and concepts create very radical posters. He twists the problem into the language that made us hard to forget his posters. He studies and analyzes the complexity of the problem makes his design very strong. He was invited at D&AD president lectured in 2009 and you can check the video. Highly recommended.
Due to my respect for Jan Van Toorn, I designed a card for him. Hope he is always inspired by many designers.
2 comments
Thinking Jan van Toorn: Critical Practice | THINKINGFORM says:
Aug 3, 2011
[...] van Toorn: Critical Practice is a collection of Jan van Toorn’s work. Jan is very unpredictable graphic designer from Netherlands. In the first 17 pages, you are [...]
Thinking Anthon Beeke. 03 11 1940 | THINKINGFORM says:
Mar 11, 2013
[...] design instead he worked as an assistant for Ed Callahan in Germany, Jacques Richez in France and Jan Van Toorn in Netherlands. in 1963, he started up as an independent designer. He became a partner in one of [...]