Albert-Jan Pool

Serendipity in typeface design, (FF) DIN – no coincidences?

November 2, Saturday 15:30 – Salt Galata

According to Erik Spiekermann, ‘DIN’ is the magic word for anything that can be measured in Germany. This includes the official German typeface, appropriately (and not surprisingly) called DIN-Schrift. Ever since Albert turned it into FF DIN, it’s been the favourite face of many graphic designers. Retrospectivly, one might thinkthat Albert’s career as a type designer was planned on a drawing board too. Spoiler: it’s not … In his talk, he reveals some of the stories on how his encounter with the lettering models of DIN 1451 led him to surprising discoveries and places such as Centre Pompidou and MoMa. Many of his typefaces and projects relied on chance meetings as well. Also, his voluntary work on several DIN standards as an expert on legibility was never planned. So, if you always wanted to know how to unintentionally acquire a job.

Biography

After studying at KABK in The Hague with Gerrit Noordzij, Albert left for Hamburg in 1987 to work in the type industry. In 1994 he started his studio Dutch Design which specializes in typography and corporate design. He designed typefaces ever since, the most famous being FF DIN which he did for FontShop (now Monotype) in 1995. It is the first, famous and most faithful revival of the lettering models from the German standard DIN 1451 for public signage. Over time, he extended FF DIN with many weights, styles, language support and script systems such as Cyrillic and Greek. Major steps in that process were the release of FF DIN Round in 2010 and FF DIN Arabic in 2016. In 2022 the family was extended with FF DIN Stencil and FF DIN Slab. Until recently, he taught typeface design and currently advises on legibility in the context of accessible design.