ED FELLA
Ed Fella is a graphic designer and artist, he specialises in typography, illustrations and photography. He is known to have had an influence on contemporary typography in America and Europe, with a book of his photographs and lettering called ‘Letters on America’.
Ed Fella went to Cass Technical High School, where he learned about commercial art through studying lettering, illustration and commercial-art techniques. After he finished school he graduated in 1957. He then went on to be a commercial artist in Detroit for 30 years and went on to receive an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Design in 1987, he started this when he was 47.
At the start of Ed’s career, he was an apprentice at Phoenix studio where he would draw headlines and lay outs, which expanded his range of skills. During the 60’s and 70’s he felts as though commercial work wasn’t the right job and wasn’t enough, therefore he started to get involved with Detroit’s culture scene. By doing this he became the designer for Detroit focus gallery where he created a lot of event posters and directed the Detroit focus quarterly. After making dozens of posters and producing a lot appeals for commercial audiences, Ed Fella retired from the commercial industry in 1985. After doing this he chose to go back to school and went to Cranbrook Academy of Art. Whilst at Cranbrook, Ed’s work developed into something very different to what he usually did, as he experimented with pseudo-anarchic designs. These new designs influenced other designers, and Fella inherited the title “Graphic Godfather” by Emigre magazine.
Ed Fella was commonly known for doing typography and design, however he had a very unique style when it came to his work. Through doing typography, and promoting other painters in posters, he developed his own handwriting with the style sans serif. This gave him a uniqueness which was also shown through the two typefaces he created.
Ed Fella went to Cass Technical High School, where he learned about commercial art through studying lettering, illustration and commercial-art techniques. After he finished school he graduated in 1957. He then went on to be a commercial artist in Detroit for 30 years and went on to receive an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Design in 1987, he started this when he was 47.
At the start of Ed’s career, he was an apprentice at Phoenix studio where he would draw headlines and lay outs, which expanded his range of skills. During the 60’s and 70’s he felts as though commercial work wasn’t the right job and wasn’t enough, therefore he started to get involved with Detroit’s culture scene. By doing this he became the designer for Detroit focus gallery where he created a lot of event posters and directed the Detroit focus quarterly. After making dozens of posters and producing a lot appeals for commercial audiences, Ed Fella retired from the commercial industry in 1985. After doing this he chose to go back to school and went to Cranbrook Academy of Art. Whilst at Cranbrook, Ed’s work developed into something very different to what he usually did, as he experimented with pseudo-anarchic designs. These new designs influenced other designers, and Fella inherited the title “Graphic Godfather” by Emigre magazine.
Ed Fella was commonly known for doing typography and design, however he had a very unique style when it came to his work. Through doing typography, and promoting other painters in posters, he developed his own handwriting with the style sans serif. This gave him a uniqueness which was also shown through the two typefaces he created.
A lot of the time, Ed Fella uses similar colour schemes in his work to help bring the composition together and make sure it's clear for people to see the relation between the photographs. The text in the images are similar fonts so can sometimes fit together as one word. Although he uses different sources for his photographs, they all happen to have something in common, whether it be the fonts, colours, backgrounds, etc.