Eye Magazine | Author | Jan Middendorp

Jan Middendorp

Recent articles by Jan Middendorp

In the right handsIssue 102, Autumn 2021
Feature

                                            The work of Barcelona type designer Laura Meseguer is a beguiling alchemy of hand- lettering and digital craft. By Jan Middendorp. Photographs by Francesco Brembati            
From gothic to roman, almostIssue 102, Autumn 2021
Review

                                                Most books on the history of type design follow a familiar trajectory. They either provide a…                        
Anette Lenz: Poetic rhetoric in the public realmIssue 101, Summer 2021
Feature

                                            Over nearly three decades, Anette Lenz has made work that transcends trends and technology. Profile by Jan Middendorp             
eL Seed: City-wide calligraffitiIssue 100, Summer 2020
Feature

                                            
	This mega-mural by street artist eL Seed spans the walls of 50 buildings in a Christian Coptic community in Cairo            
Dafi Kühne: By his own handIssue 100, Summer 2020
Feature

                                            
	Swiss designer Dafi Kühne works wholly in traditional letterpress techniques with entirely contemporary results             
Type now: Independence and originalityIssue 98, Spring 2019
Feature

                                    
States of independenceIssue 98, Spring 2019
Feature

                                            
	The fragmentation of the type market has led to new ways of examining, acquiring and enjoying typefaces … and some confusion            
Generation font rentIssue 97, Autumn 2018
Feature

                                            
	Fontstand has pioneered an innovative way for graphics students to make work with professional quality typefaces. Jan Middendorp investigates            
Time and typeIssue 96, Spring 2018
Review

                                                One of the privileges that comes with being a typography and graphic design buff in…                        
Colour is the new blackIssue 94, Summer 2017
Feature

                                            For the past decade or so, Mark van Wageningen has been investigating the possibilities of adding colour to the conventional black-and-white universe of digital type design, resulting in work that is both thrilling and evocative            
Postmodern jam sessionIssue 83, Summer 2012
Feature

                                            
	Jan Middendorp recalls Fuse, the type ‘magazine’ that opened up (and put the lid on) a transient era of adventurous type design from small digital foundries            
Prototype propagandistIssue 68, Summer 2008
Feature

                                            
	Rivadulla’s revolutionary poster art avoids socialist cliché. By Jan Middendorp            
BerlinIssue 74, Winter 2009
Feature

                                            It’s a state of mind, a club scene, and one of the great political, cultural and historical events of the past twenty years. Of the century. And it is full of designers – with plenty to say. For this special issue, Eye visits Berlin to explore the graphic output of this sprawling, labyrinthine and endlessly fascinating city            
Is type design teaching losing its soul?Issue 71, Spring 2009
Opinion

                                            Formulaic, modular approaches threaten the chemistry of the master-apprentice model.            
An abundance of directionsIssue 66, Winter 2007
Review

                                                Edo Smitshuijzen has an impressive track record as a designer of major identity and signage projects…                        
The man on every French bookshelfIssue 65, Autumn 2007
Review

                                                The French designer known as Massin (he removed his first name, Robert, in the early days…                        
From the typographic to the visualIssue 64, Summer 2007
Review

                                                This book’s title is a librarian’s nightmare. It differs by only three letters from that of…                        
Typeface/interfaceIssue 64, Summer 2007
Feature

                                            Andrea Tinnes makes type families — functional or ornamental — that quickly acquire a life of their own            
Down-to-earth Son Of A Windmill-builderIssue 63, Spring 2007
Review

                                                ‘Typo-photo’ was a term coined by Moholy-Nagy in 1925 to designate the striking montage of…                        
Space and rhythmIssue 59, Spring 2006
Feature

                                            Type designer Cyrus Highsmith learnt the craft through both study and apprenticeship. By Jan Middendorp            
Fruitful lines of graphic type analysisIssue 59, Spring 2006
Review

                                                In late 2002, a group of subscribers to the ATypI mailing list conspired to discuss…                        
The eye of the curatorIssue 55, Spring 2005
Review

                                                To a young, typographically inclined Dutchman growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, British graphic…                        

Recent blog posts about Jan Middendorp

Always drawn, never written

14 September 2021
Book design, Design history, Graphic design, Type Tuesday, Typography

This unusual biography of book designer Helmut Salden (1910-96) shows the processes behind his lettering for dust jackets. By Jan Middendorp

Helmut Salden (1910-96) was the most productive book cover designer in the Netherlands, during the…

Novo Typo goes off the grid

2 July 2021
Book design, Design education, Graphic design, Technology, Typography

At Berlin’s A—Z gallery, Dutch designer Mark van Wageningen tests the limits of self-sufficiency with his new project Offgrid. By Jan Middendorp

In Eye 94, four years ago, we described the unorthodox typographic research methods of Amsterdam…

Rigorous play

1 January 2021
Graphic design, Posters, Technology, Visual culture

For almost three decades East Berlin duo Cyan has produced urgent, experimental yet precise graphic design. Jan Middendorp meets them while the city sleeps

Like all design studios, Berlin’s Cyan has gone through a very unusual year, writes Jan…

Fill the white space

15 July 2020
Graphic design, New media, Posters, Reviews, Typography, Events and exhibitions

‘À propos’, Anette Lenz’s first major exhibition in her homeland, is an immersive, virtuoso response to Richard Meier’s MAK building in Frankfurt. By Jan Middendorp

After a two-month Covid-related delay, one of the most remarkable exhibitions of a contemporary graphic…

Tom Hautekiet, 1970-2020

11 May 2020
Graphic design, Illustration, Music design, Posters, Visual culture

Belgian designer Tom Hautekiet was one of the smartest, most energetic practitioners of his generation. His witty and subtly subversive spirit will be missed. By Jan Middendorp

On 30 April 2020, Belgian graphic designer, illustrator and musician Tom Hautekiet died unexpectedly at…

Culture in colour

1 April 2020
Book design, Graphic design, Photography, Typography, Visual culture

Tereza Bettinardi designs ‘Cursos e Oficinas’, an abstract and vibrant book series for São Paulo organisation Sesc. By Jan Middendorp

Tereza Bettinardi is from Santa Maria, in the centre of Brazil’s southernmost state, where she…

Take the clear line

28 October 2019
Graphic design, Illustration, Magazines, Posters, Visual culture

Kunstal Rotterdam presents a generous survey of work by Dutch illustrator, designer and comic artist Joost Swarte. Jan Middendorp reports

Joost Swarte must be the best known and most appreciated Dutch illustrator, designer and comic…

Outlook variable

15 May 2018
Reviews, Technology, Type Tuesday, Typography

TYPO Labs unveiled cool tools for both tyros and trailblazers. In the run-up to TYPO Berlin, Jan Middendorp delivers a considered report

As the Berlin mothership – TYPO Berlin 2018 – approaches, it seems like a good…

Boudewijn Ietswaart, 1936-2010

4 January 2011
Book design, Design history, Graphic design, Typography

A Dutch designer rediscovered and now remembered for his letterforms

Just before Christmas, Dutch designer and illustrator Boudewijn Ietswaart passed away at his home in…

Due process

13 October 2010
Graphic design, Illustration, Music design, Reviews, Typography

Porto plays host to an inspiring AGI Open conference

This year’s AGI (Alliance Graphique International) conference is taking place in Porto, a spectacular yet…

Out of the Fog and into the Fab

9 April 2009
Graphic design, Technology, Typography

Robothon 2009’s hi-tech type tools give automation to the superfamilies

Only a few decades ago, a conference about new developments in typographic technology would have…