Ed Fella: A Life in Images

Edward Fella is an influential US graphic designer, illustrator, type designer, artist and lecturer whose work is a unique mix high art and contemporary cultural sources. This book, Ed Fella: A Life in Images, is exactly that: a visual history of a remarkable life and career in images, as told by Fella himself. 

Starting out in the commercial design studios of 1950s Detroit, Ed Fella (born in 1938) spent 30 years practising professionally as a graphic designer and illustrator with client-based work for the auto industry, healthcare and retail sectors.

At the same time, he states, he was building 'an alternative practice of experimental design and typography work, done pro bono for arts organisations, while pursuing personal investigations into art and photography'.

A 316pp visual essay forms the centrepiece of the book. Designed by Fella in his own inimitable style, this is a visual history of a remarkable life in images, as told by the man himself. This section contains a wide range of Fella’s artworks, sketchbook pages and collages, examples from various illustration and print ad commissions, plus Polaroids and photographs alongside many of his instantly-recognisable type-based flyers.

The book also features an introduction by Katherine McCoy, essays by Lorraine Wild, Rick Poynor and David Cabianca (focusing on Fella’s long career, his extensive sketchbook work and his flyers, respectively) and an afterword by his daughter, Andrea Fella.

Unit Editions, 388pp, 20.5cm x 26cm, illustrated hardcover, 2022