If
you’ve been as lucky as I have to see graphic artist Ed Fella (b. 1938) talk about
his work, you will be charmed and delighted. This visual biography is absolutely
the next best thing. Within these beautiful reproductions you’ll experience Fella’s
wit as he riffs on history and makes letterforms dance. Starting as a commercial
graphic designer in Detroit, Fella’s early work for car companies and other corporate
entities runs simultaneously with posters and mailings for arts organizations. Retiring
from professional practice to take up teaching in Los Angeles, the self-described
“exit-level designer” pursued the craft with no client in mind, thereby “using design
to make art.” The Detroit/LA connection runs deep in this book: Fella and essay
contributor Lorraine Wild are alums of Cranbrook; Wild studied there under essayist
Katherine McCoy; McCoy and Wild worked with Fella at Designers & Partners in
Detroit; Wild invited Fella to join her as an instructor at California Institute
of the Arts; editor and essayist Cabianca taught at both Cranbrook and CalArts.
The essays trace Fella’s life and work, while Fella presents his “Visual Essay”
in more than 300 pages of delirious drawings, collages, paintings, prints, and photographs—a
dizzying array of media and messages—many from his copious notebooks. There is one
spread that could have filled another 300 pages in my opinion. Notebook pages collaged
with everyday paper detritus—receipts, tickets, candy wrappers, price tags, business
cards—that add up to a life story. A life in images, indeed!
