Thoughts on Felton: Not Just Graphic Design Porn
When it comes to good design intuition tells me that the intended audience dictates what is needed. I am usually sceptical of a designer’s work when it appears to always be in one ‘house style’ across projects - because different audiences would never choose the same aesthetic every time.
Only Skin Deep?
I have always liked Nicholas Felton’s clever design work, but had put him into a category of self indulgent designers because of his consistent (although beautiful) typographic and graphic style; so I was looking forward to hearing him speak last night to see if his ideas were only skin deep.
Designing with Data
Nicholas described how he became interested in telling stories using quantitative and qualitative data while he was studying in the late 1990s. He began using data-driven subjects as a platform to refine his graphic style.
Wanting to go further than relying on other data sources (such as his graphic work based on data from the novel Catch 22), Felton came to the conclusion that the most reliable and endless supply of data was his own life. So from the early 2000’s onwards he shifted his personal projects to focused on just about anything he could measure around him.
The now famous ‘Feltron Report’ is one such personal project that has been gaining in statistical complexity and visual loveliness annually since its beginnings in 2004. Each page of the report is well considered and extremely playful in its layout and graphic treatment. It’s a bit like design porn for the graphics community. But scratch beneath the surface and there is much more: personal revelations, social commentary and humour.
Felton as Story-Teller
What became clear from listening to Felton is that he is not, as I had believed, obsessed by making data look pretty ... but is a content-obsessed story teller who happens to be very strong with layout and type. And although you could say that basing his report data only on himself is egotistical, you can see that he feels he made that choice out of the necessity to have a future-proof supply.
Either way the formula appears to be working. Nicholas is selling thousands of reports and shipping them all across the globe. After all, what report have you read recently that is really memorable, worth paying for and good for hanging on your wall?
You can buy the 2009 Feltron report and see Nicholas’ recent commercial projects on his Megafone Website.
Nicholas Felton spoke in the University of Ulster on Thursday 2nd April 2009 as part of a joint MCMXC and Build event. The main sponsor for the event was the Creative Entrepreneurs Club. As ever thanks to the brilliant Standardistas
Images by Vectorfunk
Jamie Neely – Creative Director
Jamie leads the studios creative output and specialises in user experience strategy / design, information architecture, storyboarding and the development of creative concepts.
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Paul McKeever said
Great overview - sounds similar to Jeff Veen’s talk today (which was great).
Well done to Build, University of Ulster and CECNI for organising a great event.
2 years, 10 months ago
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Andy said
Just an aside - Build is the general “brand” for events I’m organising - the conference is separate & later in the year. Build will also be arranging future lectures, workshops & film screenings. Last night was a Build / MCMXC co-promoted event.
Anyhow, it was great to hear how it went as I’m stranded in San Francisco with two other hallions from Front - absolutely gutted to miss it so my thanks for such a comprehensive report!
2 years, 10 months ago