Edward Fella is an American graphic designer, artist and educator born in 1938. His work is held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the Brauer Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. For his unique style he has received several awards including, 2007 AIGA Medal, the Chrysler Award in 1997.
ED Fella was born in Detroit. he studied commercial art and graduated as a master in fine arts and design. Edward Fella started out his career being a commercial artist for 30 years from (1957-1987). Most of his work he did during this time was Automotive and health care posters.
His first job right after he finished high school was an apprentice at Phoenix studio. His day to day work during his time as a commercial artist was drawing head lines and lay outs which was the basis for his unique style today.
(examples can be seen below)
(examples can be seen below)
While Studying at Cranbrook, Fella had the freedom to continue and concentrate on his artistic exploration and experimental designs. Fella's work developed into a very elaborate pseudo-anarchic designs. This was very different from any thing that was being made at the time. His designs impacted and influenced a new era of designers who wanted to make a claim in the design world because of this Fella gained a huge following by the time he was fifty and became a controversial new designer. Fella was given the title of « Graphic godfather » by Emigre magazine.
Throughout his career, Fella has helped and influenced designers with the aid of his designs. He first started helping designers when he visited Cranbrook as a guest critic before he became a full time student and continued even after he graduated. After graduating, he joined Cal Arts where he taught design and helped influence the new generation of designers. An example of someone he influenced is Jeffery Keedy. Keedy made a typeface called keedysans and has similarity's to Fella's style with inconsistent spacing, rounded lettering and sometimes sliced. Also Barry Deck, also a graduate from cal arts, made a gothic template which was influenced by Fella. Deck even says that he made it intentionally imperfect to show the imperfect language of an imperfect world.
Edward Fella was known to break every rule in typography and design. He had a style that was unique to him at the time it was slightly base on the theory of deconstruction, but he took his uniqueness even further as he distorted a style of sanserif with his own hand writing; with various thicknesses, curves, and tails to each character so that each one is different from the one before. Fella is one of the most extreme examples of a typographer who is able to achieve the same creative freedom as the painters and sculptors.