Jan van Toorn dies last Friday at the age of 88 years.
Tragic newss this morning , but one of the greatest of all dutch designers from last century dies at the age of 88 years.
I have followed his career with all kinds of examples of his design through all decades of last half century. Many of these are also available at www.ftn-books.com
. Many of them stand out and some are also known outside our borders, since many of his designs were done for exhibitions outside the Netherlands. His style….highly recognizable and less formal than Crouwel is known for. van Toorn sits in between Sandberg and Crouwel and developed over the years a style of his own. He was one of the main designers for the van Abbemuseum and a director for the Jan van Eyck academy and beside the van Abbemuseum made design for PTT Nederland and the Cultural Foreign office. His archives are now with the Unviversity of Amsterdam.
During his life Van Toorn received two prestigious art prices for his designs. First the H.N. Werkmanprijs in 1972 and second in 1985 the BNO Piet Zwart award.
