Ed Fella

We’ve always loved the work of graphic designer Ed Fella and the musings in his blog edfella-yesterday, a decade long “past present posting with some daily currency.”

As an 85-year-old emeritus professor at Cal Arts, Fella is as prolific as ever, working from a studio at the school most days of the week where he explores “commercial vernacular” using the tools of a commercial artist from his era including pens, colored pencils, a wax roller, X-acto knives, and crayons. His studio which also functions as a storage room for decades of work, includes many file cabinets full of posters, drawings, and sketchbooks.

Fella’s career started after attending a trade and art school in Chicago where he received an education through the lens of the Bauhaus that emphasized the lack of distinction between fine and functional art. He went on to work as a commercial artist for 30 years in Detroit where he produced corporate work for the different industries that existed there in the middle of the last century. And although he always had a day job, he was also developing an experimental graphic design practice on the side which he has continued to this day.

During the most recent 30 years of his career, he’s had more space to push his graphic design practice into a realm which also sits under the umbrella of fine art. Some of which is published on edfella-yestoday. Here we show a range of visual thoughts Fella explores as he creates things he’s curious to see. His works help us to remember to always stay interested and to never stop exploring.

Images courtesy of Ed Fella. Words by Dante Iniguez