So when doing some research on Nicholas Felton, it is quite amazing what he has accomplished off of something that can easily be so simplistic. By recording something as basic as his yearly activities, he has done so in a way and style that is truly original. His creativity has even landed him publications in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Good Magazine; and has been recognized as one of the 50 most influential designers in America by Fast Company AND has been credited for creating facebook’s new timeline format that is seen by millions today. But what is it about his reports about his yearly activities that has landed as such a credited designer?… Well at first, I didn’t think they would be THAT  intricate, but then I investigated a little bit further..

For example, he starts at 2005 up to the most recent report in 2011. And the differences in intricacy are undeniable. In fact, they have become almost unreadable. To elaborate, here is a report from calculating where he’s traveled in the year of 2005:

As you can see, it’s pretty straight forward, but still thorough. He shows where he has traveled abroad, where he’s traveled in the United States, the amount of flights, the average distance, air miles traveled, and what percentage that would equate to in relation to the distance from the earth to the moon to give you a good sense of how far he’s gone. The categories are separated in four readable squares to properly organize them, accompanied with an image of several tall buildings to make it ecstatically pleasing. In my opinion, this is a very good report. It’s not more than it needs to be, but all the elements to make it effective and impressive are still there.

Now in contrast, here is The Felton Report of the same situation (travel) but in 2011:

As you can see, the difference from the 2005 travel report could not be more different. For me, it is almost unreadable. For example, the writing is too small to read, there is just too much detail for me to even want to stay focused, I don’t know the purpose of he specific illustrations, and I don’t understand the purpose for the placing. The way the images overlap for New York specifically is just unreadable and exhausting. You really have to go out of your way to try to truly understand this particular report and I doubt many people really care to.

I don’t know if this means his life has become extremely intricate and more exciting in the past 6 years, but I doubt it. It is almost as if throughout the years he is attempting to prove how precise he can be. However, if everyone is too confused to even care to understand it then what’s the point. It’s as if he is just trying to show off at this point. When I first looked at these reports, I thought they were for some huge corporation or something involving business, because I didn’t really care to look further. But when I did, and realized it was just about his life activities, I got the impression that the whole thing is kind of a lot. Each year, it seems like he must top himself in detail to prove his improvement and credibility. But who knows, maybe people really like that..