Engineering author steams ahead
08/07/10
Pure Offices Kestrel Court is home to an extraordinary man with an extraordinary business. Richard Furness, of JDF & Associates, is an accomplished engineer by day and a celebrated author by night.
Richard’s achievements and accolades during his career in fluid mechanics and metrology are too many to list, but suffice to say he is a master in his field.
Among other things, he managed multi-million dollar businesses at ABB Instrumentation and Endress & Hauser in the US and in Europe, was Head of a UKAS flow laboratory for ten years, is a former UNDP consultant to the United Nations on metrology and was specifically assigned to the Government of India. He is acknowledged as a world leader in the field of flow measurement. He now runs his own consulting business, JDF & Associates, with clients all over the world.
But engineering only occupies half of his office space at Pure Offices. The other half is filled with books - written by him. Richard has achieved the ultimate dream of building a successful business on a hobby that he loves - railways and steam trains. In 2002 he co-authored the British Railways Book of Station Signs (with good friend David Brennand), which sold out fast and is now out of print. Flushed with success by the demand for such a book, and with encouragement from the National Railway Museum at York, Richard embarked on research for a series of poster books, using the NRM’s collection of posters and artwork. After eight years of curation, this has led to extensive revisions in the NRM archive.
The first volume, Poster to Poster: Scotland, published in July last year, won Scotland’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award. The second, which journeys through Yorkshire and the North-East, has already sold a third of its stock. Richard says he stumbled on this niche in the market by accident. “The business just kept expanding - every time I looked another room in my house was filled with books! I realised I needed a serviced office somewhere.”
Richard found what he wanted in Pure Offices, Gloucester. He was impressed with Pure’s services and the synergy between businesses in the centre. He uses the word ‘camaraderie’ to describe the feel of the community. Having been at Pure since mid-May this year, and with his third volume due to come out in November, Richard says JDF & Associates will be needing another unit by this time next year. Pure is absolutely delighted to have Richard and JDF on board, and looks forward to his expansion.
You can discover more about JDF & Associates and the Poster to Poster series at www.jdfandassociates.com and www.railway-posters.com.
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