Organized around a collective of the world’s best talent in data visualization, interactive software development and design, the Jason Forrest Agency is focused on solving complex problems in business and industry.
We design and build tools to help you explore data for better, faster decisions - or we can help you tell a story to foster understanding and memorability.
Let’s have a chat: hello@jasonforrestagency.com
Jason Forrest builds on a diverse set of experiences in his work and life. He is a data visualization and design expert in New York City working at the intersection of business, culture, and data.
He was an Associate Partner at McKinsey and Co. and Director of the Data Visualization Lab supporting over 30 clients from Fortune 100 corporations to NGOs, and Foundations across a wide spectrum of industries. In his 9 year tenure at McKinsey, he launched the McKinsey Health Institute, spearheaded the COVID Response Center, and contributed to many high-profile events like McKinsey's presence at COP26. His work spans industries and technologies, consulting Fortune 100 corporations, NGOs, and non-profit foundations. He built digital tools, dashboards, and scrollytelling experiences for the C-suite, helped to map McKinsey's history, and created data sculptures to inspire the entire organization.
He is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Nightingale: The Journal of the Data Visualization Society, where he fosters a global discourse on data visualization, supporting thousands of writers in expanding the narrative. In 2022, he established Nightingale Magazine, a print publication that ships to 57 countries and continues to explore how dataviz is discussed, practiced, and valued.
Forrest is an active writer and lecturer, speaking at universities and conferences around the world. He has presented his ideas at Oxford University, Columbia, NYU, UPenn, Northeastern University, the Vera Center for Justice, as well as the Infographics Congress (NL), Outlier (PRT), and Tapestry (US).
Previously, he co-founded a media startup called NetworkAwesome.com - a media channel featuring over 90,000 videos curated from YouTube. He also co-founded a production company, Radosaur Productions, to create custom video content with brands such as Vans, MTV, ESPN, X-Games, Universal Music Group, Tumblr, Boiler Room, and Pitchfork.
Forrest began his career as a globally recognized electronic musician, with many releases on international labels and performances at the world’s biggest music festivals including Glastonbury (UK), Tim Festival (Brazil), Lowlands Festival (Netherlands), Primavera Sound (Spain), Mutek (Canada), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Glade (UK), Arrezzowave (Italy), and Club Transmediale (Germany). He was featured in many periodicals including Entertainment Weekly, Blender, German Rolling Stone, Muzik Express, Spin, XLR8R, Urb, De:Bug, Crash, Muzik, Trax, The Village Voice, Res, Go Mag, Style and The Family Tunes, The Wire, Time Out New York, and Vice.
The music Video for his song “War Photographer” was named video of the year by both Res Fest and Pitchfork Media in 2005. The video for "Steppin Off” was directed by Jon Watts who went on to direct Spider-man: Homecoming + sequels as well as the series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. This was Watt’s first music video and it was named the video of the year by Res magazine in 2005.
For more info, portfolio and links: https://www.jasonforrestftw.com/contact
Core beliefs
- 😊 HAVE FUN! We are passionate about our work and we want to bring as much joy into it as possible.
- 🌟 Quality work is a team sport that follows the process.
- ⏰ Taking the time to make great work creates a bigger impact and drives more interest, traffic, and opportunities.
- 🔍 Constraints fuel the problem-solving process and should be embraced!
- 🗣️ Start every project with a conversation to define your communications objectives, then move to paper and pencil.
- 👥 Bring stakeholders, user/audience into the process as early as possible to make your work as intuitive as possible. Make sure to use common language – even for experts.
- 🌱 We lift up people with everything we do. Creating a positive, supportive environment should be reflected in the way we work as well as our output.
- 📊 The data is a stakeholder- explore and prototype your data before you commit to design and story.
- 📚 Study history in order to be inspired by it. Dataviz has been around more than 200 years – use it!
Check out the JFA theme song!
Credit: Matteo Moretti