Jack Yan speaks at Design Festival

New Zealander Jack Yan speaks at Australia's State of Design Festival: creating exports for fonts

Lucire publisher, brand consultant and one of the few Kiwis currently across the ditch to speak at the State of Design Festival at Melbourne's Federation Square this week

Melbourne and Wellington, August 2 (JY&A Media) Jack Yan, one of Australasia's most respected typeface designers and publisher of the monthly print fashion magazine Lucire which launches in New Zealand in October, is in Melbourne to give the Australian Graphic Design Association's (AGDA) 'The Craft and Business of Typography' Forum at Federation Square on Tuesday. A second session takes place in Adelaide on Thursday evening.

Mr Yan, who helms Jack Yan & Associates (www.jya.net), a communications' company involved in brand consulting, imaging and media, will be giving a talk on how Australia can lift its reputation in typeface design, while touching on his international consulting work and Kiwi fashion mag Lucire.

'There is a pool of talent in Australasia that has largely been untapped by international companies,' said Mr Yan, whose company's work appears on everything from books by independent publishers to multinational banks.
'It is not through quality issues that many local and international designers look overseas. I believe we fall short on how we market ourselves.'
His talk centres around how local designers are ignored and whether forming a collective, or a joint venture, could raise their profile.

It brings in his experience from his work at JY&A Consulting, the Medinge Group branding think-tank in Sweden, and a book he co-authored last year, Beyond Branding, on what consumers of the twenty-first century demand. On October 4, he launches a national print fashion magazine, Lucire, in New Zealand, using almost exclusively antipodean-designed typefaces.

Jack Yan & Associates' JY&A Imaging division already has products on CD-ROMs that have sold particularly well amongst graphic designers worldwide. The company is arguably the region's best exporter when it comes to fonts, having actively licensed since the early 1990s.

Colleagues from the local scene will be joining him, including: the University of Canberra's Assoc Prof Anthony Cahalan; two well respected names from design, Garry Emery and Vince Frost of EmeryFrost; David Pidgeon of Gollings+Pidgeon; Voice Design's Scott Carslake and Anthony Deleo; and one of Australia's best known typographic names, Stephen Banham.

The Melbourne Forum takes place from Tuesday 5.30 to 8.30 p.m. at BMW Edge at Federation Square, Flinders Street, with tickets ($20) available at Ticketek (132-849 in Victoria or 1 800 062-849 interstate) or online at www.designfestivalaustralia.com; refreshments and gift courtesy Spicers Paperpoint. In Adelaide, it will be held at the AIT Roma Mitchell Centre for the Arts, 39 Light Square, beginning Thursday 6.30 p.m., with RSVPs to Mr Paul Heck, (08) 8463-6321, cellphone (0410) 470-309, email heck.paul@saugov.sa.gov.au.

About Jack Yan
Jack Yan founded Jack Yan & Associates (http://jya.net), one of the world’s first virtual firms, in 1987. His company is based or represented in over a dozen countries worldwide. Among his company’s interests are business consulting, imaging, software and media, including the fashion magazine brand Lucire. He writes on topics, ranging from branding and business responsibility to fashion and typography, in numerous publications worldwide and is a regular international speaker. His personal site is at www.jackyan.com.

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