4 First Names is Nate Allen and Wes Mikel.
With so much information in the world, data visualization is a natural evolution. People don’t inherently understand spreadsheets and equations. Presented in the right way, though, data can tell the most accurate stories.
The Work is the Reward
We founded 4 First Names to be able to do more work and partner more closely with clients. We don’t have a silo of designers and developers working behind the scenes; everyone who works on a project talks with the client. We believe this helps us create better projects for our clients, which gets our name passed along. And that creates the chance to do more work. The reward for our work isn’t to earn a vacation, bigger budget or shelf of awards. The reward for our work is the chance to do more work. Because we love what we do. We care about our projects. And we can’t wait to get started on the next one.
About Nate Allen
Nate has been a video game designer, a web developer and organizer of meetups and events around startups. He was a cofounder of Vicinity Games, makers of Papercraft on the Xbox 360. He has also organized the Kansas City Video Game Developers meetup. After leaving Garmin in 2011, Nate was able to focus on his programming and ventures full time. He now is an organizer for Kansas City’s Startup Weekend events taking place twice annually.
Nate gets anxious when not working on a world changing project.
About Wes Mikel
Wes leads the visual design at 4 First Names. He spends a lot of time thinking about brand, message and audience and even more time on his computer. Then he makes projects stand out. Wes is a creative lead with client experience in CPG, insurance, healthcare, tech and not for profit.
In his free time, Wes works with high school journalism programs to challenge students, improve his patience and seem like a better person.
About the Work
We tell stories with data and information. We create interactive environments to present and explore data. These environments can exist on websites, tablets or phones, but they all do the same thing: tell a story driven by data and information.
It Starts with Data and Finishes with a Story
When we present a story, we always start with the data. But a foundation is far from a finished product. First, we figure out the data’s message, decide how to relay that message and ultimately craft an experience woven with design and functionality to convey that message. Learn more about our process »
The Nitty Gritty
We build our work on a video game engine, which lets us craft our projects in 3D. Because there’s no page refresh, a user maintains a sense of where they are.
