Ed Fella Project: A01 - Ed Fella Research

Edward Fella is an artist and graphic designer whose work has had an important influence on contemporary typography in America and Europe. He began his career as a commercial artist for 30 years in Detroit between 1957 and 1987 before receiving an MFA in Design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1967, mainly focusing on graphics. The majority of his work done at this time was automotive and health care posters. Since then he has spent his time teaching and working on his own individual self-published work which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies, his aim piece being the book ‘Letters on America’ which showcases his Polaroid lettering and sign photography. In 1997 he received the Chrysler award and in 1999 he received an Honorary Doctorate from CCS in Detroit. His work is in the National Design Museum and MOMA in New York.  

Ed Fella is one of the most daring and extreme graphic designers in America today. He is most well-known for his obsessive hand-drawn alphabets and characters, Fella creates work with the power of raw art. The first book on Ed Fella, designed by Lorraine Wild, contains multiple examples of the designer's work. This book also contains Fella's collection of Polaroid snapshots of the signs and symbols he sees on the streets. These photos, taken over a period of many years, serve as a record of domesticated and functional architecture around the world as well as inspiration for Fella's own designs. The end result, Letters on America’ is a book which will appeal to all designers and art directors, whether their love is photography or fonts, art direction or art

I think that Ed Fella’s work is a great focus on typography and vernacular signs around America. The continuity of the medium and the cropping make this a careful, artful and well-done study. To avoid focusing too much on the background rather than the foreground and the actual lettering,  Fella purposely goes for a tight shot and most of the photos only show parts of signs and letters but Fella is not interested in what the letters say but rather their form, colour and structure. Edward Fella: Letters on America is a collection of hundreds of Fella’s own Polaroids of other peoples’ hand drawn signs and graphic minutiae seen and recorded while travelling across America. The shiny square Polaroids are laid out page after page, in equal, tidy rows with edges touching. Fella captures the hand painted signs and the bright neon lights we take for granted and pass by each day.