Jack Yan

Jack Yan
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Kowloon, British Hong Kong
Occupation(s)Publisher, designer, businessman
Political partyAlliance (2008)
Websitehttps://jackyan.com/

Jack Yan (Chinese: 甄爵恩; pinyin: Zhēn Jué'ēn; 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,[1] and again in 2013, but was unsuccessful in both elections.[2][3]

Background

Yan was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong,[4] and emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, with his parents in 1976.[5] He attended St Mark's Church School (where he was Dux[6]) and Scots College,[7] and graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with three degrees – two in business and one in law.

Aside from English, Yan speaks Cantonese, French,[8] and Taishanese.[9]

Career

Business ventures

Beginning in the 1980s, Yan created over 100 typeface designs himself for his firm, Jack Yan & Associates[10] and was New Zealand's first digital typeface designer.[11] He encouraged other local typeface designers such as Kris Sowersby to pursue careers in that industry. His typefaces include Ætna, a revival of Bembo.[12]

He also helms a consulting firm,[13] and is co-chair of the Medinge Group think-tank.[14]

In 1997, he founded Lucire,[15][11] a fashion magazine that added print editions after starting on the web,[16] and serves as its publisher.

From 2007 to 2012, he was a judge for Miss Universe New Zealand, and became a director of the licensee firm that took over in 2013.

In 2008, he founded the online car encyclopedia Autocade,[17] which he then extended into a print version in 2023.[18]

Writings and media

Yan was a contributor to Visual Arts Trends in New York (1999–2001),[19] The Journal of Brand Management in London (2003–11),[20] and Desktop magazine in Australia (1996–2010).[21]

Web publications that he has written for include UK-based Fontzone[22] and DZ3. He was a founding contributor to Allaboutbranding.com (from 2002).[23] Additionally, he writes for his own publications, CAP and Lucire.

He contributed chapters to Beyond Branding (2003) and Brands with a Conscience (2016), wrote Typography and Branding (2004), and ghost-wrote Greek designer Panos Papadopoulos's autobiography, Panos: My Life, My Odyssey (2022), for which they won a Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards 2023.[24] He followed that up with the biographical Lilla boken om Panos: historien om den ikoniska badmodedesignern (2024) in Sweden.

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.[25]

In 2020, he started as a regular panellist on Radio New Zealand's The Panel.[26]

He is better known outside New Zealand for his work; he has been interviewed by CNN,[27] Business 2.0[28] and the UK's The Daily Telegraph.[29]

Politics

In the 2008 general election Yan stood as a candidate on the Alliance party list,[30] but no candidates for the Alliance were elected.[31] He was a candidate in Wellington's 2010 mayoral election,[1] and stood again in the 2013 elections.[2][32]

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, 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, ISBN 0-7494-4115-1; 2005 paperback edition, Kogan Page, ISBN 0-7494-4399-5.
  • 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, ISBN 0-7494-7544-7.
  • Panos: My Life, My Odyssey, with Panos Papadopoulos; 2022, LID Publishing, ISBN 978-1-911687-12-2.
  • Autocade Yearbook 2024, 2023, JY&A Media, ISSN 3021-159X.
  • Lilla boken om Panos: historien om den ikoniska badmodedesignern, with Panos Papadopoulos; 2024, Tukan förlag, ISBN 978-9-180385-83-1.
  • Autocade Year of Cars 2025, 2024, JY&A Media, ISSN 3021-159X.

References

  1. ^ a b "Wellington City Mayor » www.elections2010.co.nz". Archived from the original on 3 September 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Six-way battle for Wellington mayoralty". 3 News NZ. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016.
  3. ^ Katie Chapman; Tessa Johnstone; Kerrie McBride (12 October 2013). "Three more years for Wade-Brown". Dominion Post. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  4. ^ Young, Simon. 2007, "Immigration nation", Idealog, March–April, pp. 40–46.
  5. ^ Paki, Kui. 2004, "Polyeurasian—the new breed New Zealander", Tu Mai, February, pp. 20–2.
  6. ^ Hewitson, Michele (30 August 2013). "Michele Hewitson Interview: Jack Yan". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Jack Yan, Executive, Scots Collegians". Scots College. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  8. ^ Jacobson, Julie. 2006, "Five minutes with Jack Yan", The Dominion Post, 22 June, p. D3.
  9. ^ "Watch: Cantonese, with publisher and typeface designer Jack Yan". Te Papa Tongarewa. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  10. ^ Martinkus, Angela. 2000, "Type cast", The Age, "Emag" supplement, March.
  11. ^ a b Giardina, Sharon (30 May 2022). "Interview with Jack Yan on global sustainable fashion". Komoneed. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  12. ^ Pratzel, Anne-Marie. 1996, "New faces", Publish, August, p. 107
  13. ^ Fernandez, Juanita. 2005, "Not your average CEO: Jack of all trades", Wellington Today, July–August, pp. 10–11.
  14. ^ Rydergren, Tobias. 2002, "Go logo! Brand-soldaterna slår tillbaka", Resumé, 22 August, pp. 22–3.
  15. ^ Vidal, Josie. 2000, "The web that Jack built", The Evening Post, "Flair" supplement, p. 8.
  16. ^ Simpson, Emily. 2004, "Man with a plan", ProDesign, December 2004 – January 2005, pp. 34–36.
  17. ^ "Car cyclopædia Autocade hits five million page views". Oversteer. 26 October 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  18. ^ "Lucire gets a sister print title: Autocade launches a lavish Yearbook". 20 December 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  19. ^ "Editors and contributors". Visual Arts Trends. Archived from the original on 11 January 2001. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  20. ^ "Journal of Brand Management - Abstract of article: Corporate responsibility and the brands of tomorrow". 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  21. ^ "Jack Yan". Desktop. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  22. ^ "Fontzone". Archived from the original on 2 March 2000. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  23. ^ "Allaboutbranding.com". Archived from the original on 23 January 2002. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  24. ^ "Winners 2023". Business Book Awards. 16 May 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  25. ^ Keall, Chris. "Ask me anything: Jack Yan". National Business Review. Archived from the original on 20 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  26. ^ "The Panel with Jennie Morten and Jack Yan". Radio New Zealand. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  27. ^ Botelho, Greg (2 December 2002). "'Make-or-break' season". CNN. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  28. ^ Mucha, Thomas (13 May 2004). "Marketing the brand 'America'". Business 2.0.
  29. ^ Booth, Jenny (8 June 2003). "We have ways of making you forget". The Sunday Telegraph.
  30. ^ "Candidate profile: Jack Yan". The Alliance. Archived from the original on 25 September 2010.
  31. ^ "Official Count Results – Overall Status". New Zealand Ministry of Justice. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
  32. ^ "Jack Yan announces 2013 mayoral bid | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz.