Discourse – Ed Fella

Ed Fella’s career has spanned over several displines; originally an illustrator for top advertising agencies for thirty years, he retired from the commercial world so that he could return to education. Fella would regulary crit students work at Cranbrook before enrolling onto the course himself, it was through this experience that he made the decision to turn his talents to teaching. Throughout his illustration years he self published projects, and produced free work for the alternative Detriot art scene.

His work is a great example of postmodern design, taking the concept of desconstruction he mixed up existing trends with new ones. His use of collage,  handdrawn style and varition on size and style of typefaces all are reminiscent of the Dada and Surrealist age. His works have an almost childlike, doodle feel to them. Fella is clearly an artist highly knowledgable in various design prinicples; he learnt the rules well, in order to break them so successfully.

Like Zuzana Licko he constructed new typefaces, ahead of the boom of the digital age. Émigré dedicated half of issue 17 to Fella. His designs have featured on the front page of Raygun, and his fonts continue to be distributed through Émigré fonts.

References

http://www.edfella.com/

http://www.edfella.com/resume.html

http://www.emigre.com/Editorial.php?sect=1&id=34 (emigre 30, 1994)

http://www.emigre.com/EMag.php?issue=17

http://www.worksight.com/writings/writings_essays_ed_fella.html

Image taken from

http://www.edfella.com/