Jan Mid­den­dorp (4/9/56–12/8/23) con­tri­bu­ted an incre­di­ble wealth of know­ledge to the field of typo­gra­phy and was an inte­gral part of our typo­gra­phic family. I met Jan at my first Type­Con con­fe­rence in Mil­wau­kee in 2012. He was one of my first type design men­tors, who offe­red busi­ness advice, type cri­ti­ques, and intro­du­ced me to inva­luable new cont­acts in the field. Jan was at almost every one of the lar­ger type con­fe­ren­ces, and I can vividly see him sit­ting in the lobby with his back­pack slouched next to him, giving cri­ti­ques to stu­dents or dis­cus­sing the latest type con­tro­ver­sies with col­le­agues. He published a great num­ber of typo­gra­phy books that were not only jam packed with know­ledge, but also beau­tifully desi­gned, and writ­ten with a fresh, approacha­ble style. I used his text­book “Sha­ping Text” in my Intro to Typo­gra­phy cour­ses over the years, not only because it was tho­rough, but also because he knew how to draw stu­dents in with invi­ting con­tent, with sub­heads like “Sedu­cing with Type”.

The con­fe­rence talks are often enligh­tening, but the great net­wor­king and real fun hap­pens after the talks, with din­ner, drinks, and dancing. I found out that Jan was not only the cen­ter of many pro­fes­sio­nal talks at the con­fe­ren­ces, but also the life of the party, in his own quiet way. One night in Mil­wau­kee, seve­ral of us went to a bar cal­led the Safe­House, where we had to do the chi­cken dance to get inside. Jan did­n’t miss a beat! I so wish I had a photo of that moment. Over the years there were count­less type conferences…with paella on the beach in Bar­ce­lona, a dance floor packed with type desi­gners at a Ger­man bar in Ams­ter­dam, and beau­tiful roof­top happy hours in many cities across the globe. The photo, above, is from the 2018 Ker­ning Con­fe­rence in Faenza, Italy, when Jan and I went for a cof­fee and walk around the farmer’s mar­ket, and he told me about his ill­ness. Due to the pan­de­mic, it ended up being our final good­bye.

Our inter­na­tio­nal type com­mu­nity is small, and a bright light has been lost this last year. I am imme­a­sur­a­bly gra­teful for the ways that Jan Mid­den­dorp chan­ged not only our type com­mu­nity, but also for the count­less ways in which he impac­ted both my career and per­so­nal life. May your memory live on, dear Jan!