For the past three years, graphic designer Nicholas Felton has gathered the meticulous details and detritus of his life; he counted, weighed, measured and listed the minutiae of his daily existence—the sum total of his tastes, habits and whims. The result of this narcissistic, O.C.D.-like behavior is The Feltron Report.
Though the idea at first smacks of pretension and self-importance, Feltron’s report is instead an amazing compendium, filled with handsome typographic highlights and clever graphic design elements. A showcase for Felton’s design repertoire. And as it turns out, the content is captivating, if only for the spectacle of the task—the careful collection and recording of nearly all the input and output of one (relatively dynamic) person.
To some degree, the report has a voyeuristic quality to it. Rarely do we get such a detailed glimpse into anyone’s life. The potential for understanding one’s life through the tallying of resources, both produced and consumed, could be an interesting tool for the recognition and appreciation of what constitutes an existence, as a consumer and a human.
The report deserves a careful viewing, first for its aesthetics and imagination, and second, as a document and undertaking of some significance.
