Edward Fella

It’s a highly skewed version of 1940s show-card lettering. Only Steven Heller would probably know what connections it makes, I can't even tell you myself!

Edward Fella is an artist and graphic designer known for his eccentric letterforms and compositions—his work has had an important influence on contemporary typography in the U.S. and in Europe. A self-described “commercial artist,” Fella began his career in Detroit’s advertising world in the 1950s...and nearly thirty years later entered graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art. For the past twenty years he has been a faculty member at CalArts, where he has had a profound influence on a younger generation of designers. In addition to teaching, he currently devotes his time to his unique self-published work, which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies. His work is in the National Design Museum and MOMA in New York. In 1997, he received the Chrysler Award and in 1999, an Honorary Doctorate from CCS in Detroit. A book of his photographs and lettering, Letters on America, was published by Princeton Architectural Press. He was a finalist for the National Design Award in 2001, and in 2007, Fella was awarded the AIGA Medal.