On 2 May Jan Menses died at the age of 67. And with that, a small piece of me. If I remember it well, I first met Jan when I worked in a copy shop. I was I think 18 or 19. He was a friendly older man, always busy copying stuff, apparently busy doing projects. Art projects. He came by often, to make project proposals, books, etc. And he also needed a small bit of design like type set in a specific font. I was intrigued. I still painted and drew a lot, since I was in the first year of graphic design at Minerva. But his specific drawing style and his ideas I liked a lot. And that became clear quite soon. He had a background in advertising and that was so visible in his work and thinking.

We kept in contact ever since. For my internship, I decided not to go to an agency, because I already did a lot of work besides school. But asked Jan if I could do my internship with him, to work on my conceptual capacity. What followed was a period where I made a lot of conceptual work like Residue from a nearby past and also helped on the projects Jan was working on, like the Millennium Emergency Hospital. It was great and it helped me a lot.

I will always remember him as that man, didn’t matter where you bumped into him, that had a pile of papers under his arms, being up to something new. Another great plan. And I hope that when I will be 50+ I will do the same.