Fulltron

Cheesecake eaten in Belfast by Nicholas Felton: 1.

So last Thursday we were very privileged to have Nicholas Felton in town for his first UK appearance and an evening of fun and figures at Ulster University, and beyond. The official talk was fascinating: Nicholas took us back to his early days at Rhode Island School of Design and his search for content that he could convert into something interesting. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 came to the rescue with Nicholas cataloguing a whole pile of details and developing systems by which it could be displayed.

Copyright issues came to bear and self-authored gathered-info was needed to further develop the technique. Early experiments included a vintage postcard powered, imaginary road trip across the US manifesting itself as an online map (Playcation) and a Logo Taxonomy in which Nicholas determined that there aren't any logos that use the sea slug as a motif.

 

2004 saw a Feltron Report forerunner and in 2006 Nicholas produced the inspired Valentine Index Worksheet. But of course, it was the Reports (and beyond) we were most interested in so we were shown the early version. The first print version was just given away and NF expressed his surprise at the interest it got. So for the next version production values were increased and small price tag added. Sales went well and that brought us up to the last edition. Then it was on to commissioned info graphics for Metropolis, Print and New York Magazine's Intelligencer and of course Daytum, which seemed to me to be a natural progression from NF's increasing obsessions.

(For some reason my mind was spinning with thoughts of Paul Auster and Nicholson Baker).

One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of the journey (his early search for material, the discovery of data and the subsequent conversion of that data into beautiful graphics) was how all that highly personal work has led Nicholas to real-life, paying commissions and I for one found that very encouraging; unlike many designers who choose a path of self-expression NF has developed something that is unquestionably useful, very cool, extremely beautiful and not just a graphic style.

Questions afterwards centred around the manipulation and privacy of data, and of editorial control. And then after all that, we got boozed up and had dinner.

   

   

It was a great night and it was only made possible thanks to a few very committed parties. So special thanks have to go to Rita and the Creative Entrepreneurs Club for funding the event, to the other Nicklas (ehem, that's Nicklas from Web Standardistas) for taking Nicholas on the Belfast Tour, to UU for the use of the room and to everyone else who helped with sticking up posters, taking the money on the door and for doing the posters in the first place (thank you me...don't mention it).

Oh, and of course, again, big thanks to the star of the show for coming all that way! I hope I got all this right, if I didn't, do let me know.

Comments

[AndrewK]

Hi Richard,
Did he mention how the data gathering was undertaken? Nightly entries into a moleskine? The wearing of a pedometer?
Was the collecting part something he enjoyed (like Nick Hornby's music lists), or a burden (like my financial accounts)?
Andrew

[David Airey]

Hi Richard,

I was going to ask how the talk went, so I'm glad to know it was a success for all involved. Did you put the heart in the cheesecake for Nicholas? Very artistic.

[Richard]

Andrew: a good question, could have done with you there. Didn't ask "how" but as to "why", the impression I got was that it was a natural inclination and only very, very occasionally a chore; Nicholas, if I remember correctly, did say that noting every street name he walked down was a bit of a bind, but did make an interesting map (I could be mis-paraphrasing there).

David: we should have got them to make it a pie chart.

[Loïc Boyer]

I'm speechless. I wish I was there… No record (mp3/avi)?
Aaaarrgh, I feel like like a Prince fan in the '80s who missed a gig in a club.

[Ben]

"Cheesecake eaten in Belfast by Nicholas Felton: 1" fucking hilarious.

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Great site and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor

[Vicki]

Interesting to hear about the development, thanks for writing up.
You have to naturally the motivation for that sort of thing don't you, I tried playing with Daytum for a bit but it ground me down pretty quick. Partly because it feels a bit unneccessary though - when you have things like last.fm keeping records for you already.

Never thought of the Paul Auster link before but definitely, yes!

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Nicholas Felton sounds like and interesting man.

P.S. That Cheesecake looks amazing!! MMMM

[Jonathan]

Well done on the posters, I saw them up all around Uni. A real shame I couldn't be there, as we were on a Viscom class trip to Paris :-(

[Thom]

CBC Radio's Spark has an interview with Felton on their blog. http://tinyurl.com/cj5324

[rs gold]

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