A celebration of life and work of Jan Middendorp
On December 8, 2023, Jan Middendorp died. He was an extremely versatile person: theater maker, musician, writer, designer and author of a number of inevitable books about graphic design and type. In 2002, with “Ha, daar gaat er een van mij” (Hey, there goes one of mine), he exposed the design landscape in The Hague between 1945 and 2000. His magnus opus is “Dutch Type”, a hefty tile containing everything of any significance in the field of type design in the Netherlands. He then compiled a standard work for students: Shaping Text. Long before that, he produced the magazine ‘Druk’ for Fontshop. Just to mention a few notable facts.
But now he’s gone. A farewell meeting was recently held in his hometown Berlin. In addition to being Italian, Belgian and German, Jan was also Dutch: by birth and through his work on Dutch graphic design.
Zefir7, the designers’ cafe for which he gave several lectures, celebrated Jan’s life and work with colleagues and friends on 13 February. With contributions by Chris Reinewald, Erik van Blokland, Huug Schipper and Peter Verheul.
Photography: Karen Polder