THE LATEST TOUR DE FORCE FROM NIGEL HOLMES.

Nigel’s new gem is an infographically-driven book (published by Taschen) that explains 100 strange rituals from around the world.
We soon learn that people do some really weird stuff to pass the time. Like snorkeling in a peat bog, throwing dead rats, and rolling big cheeses down a steep hill. There’s even a Night of the Radishes.

The book contains a lot of information and explanation, but this is the work of Nigel Holmes, so naturally there are humorous insights (and outright jokes) running through the pages. One of the spreads in the book is completely fake. Sorry, no clue to which one here.

My advice: Get the book, and see how engaging infographics can be when the joy of explanation runs free. Buy it here: https://bit.ly/2LaKxJE

Below are five of the 100 spreads, with comments by Nigel. Click on them to see larger versions.

Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest
This stunning, if rather disgusting, event had intrigued me for years; it was the original impetus for the book, and the only one of the 100 that I actually attended. The contest organizers feel they should entertain the crowds for an event that only takes 10 minutes, so there are hours of pre-main-event sideshows while we wait in the boiling sun!
In many of the spreads in the book, I’ve included something that’s shown at its actual size. Here, the hot dog itself was a no-brainer.

Dwile Flonking
One of the silliest English examples in the book—the odd names for everything, for a start—straight out of Monty Python. My oddly-shaped dancers are based quite closely on a famous Henri Matisse painting (La Danse, 1909–10; Google it, you’ll see). That’s why the painter is sitting there having a thought about doing a painting of the event.

Cheese Rolling
I adapted this from my book Instant Expert, adding extra details. I was happy to leave a big white space on the right-hand page, and Taschen never questioned that kind of design choice. But they did want a worldwide collection, even though this could have been a whole book just devoted to UK silliness (with Spain as a close second). I’m constantly amazed at the odd things people do all round the world.

Tango
For events that seemed more natural in an upright shape, a few of the spreads are turned sideways. Like some other spreads, the Tango is really just a big illustration, with text explanations. But it was an obvious chance to include a diagram of the most basic move (color-coded to the dancers, of course!), and another little piece about how male dancers can “ask” for a dance (and how female dancers can avoid them!).

Calcio Storico
An Italian “sport” that mixes up wrestling, boxing, soccer, rugby elbowing and head-butting. The graphic is an example of mixing traditional infographics with freehand hand drawing on one spread. There’ll be more about the different styles used throughout the book (and about the almost extinct Freehand as my drawing program of choice) in the next post.

Next post: The process behind the infographics.