Edward Fella

After his time as a commercial artist he went to study at the Center for Creative Studies (now the College for Creative Studies), graduating in 1985.Subsequently, Fella went to Cranbrook Academy of Art, graduating in 1987. While at Cranbrook, Fella refined his craft, combining new creative experimentation with his 30 years of experience as a commercial artist. After graduating from Cranbrook, Fella was hired to teach at California institute of the Arts by Lorraine Wild in 1987. Fella gave his last lecture at CalArts on April 15, 2013.

Fella's work is largely an intervention in how it mixes high art and contemporary culture to produce unique art. According to Lorraine Wild, a 2006 AIGA medalist:

Edward Fella was a commercial artist for 30 years, from 1957 to 1987. Most of the works he created during this time were automotive and health care posters. According to this article, his first job after finishing high school was an apprenticeship at Phoenix Studios, a commercial art space. His day-to-day work during his time as a commercial artist was drawing headlines and layouts which helped refine his style and skill. His illustrations were reflective of the trends of the time, while the typography he used was ironic to commercial art deco type. Fella explored many different techniques, such as found typography, scribbles, brush writing, typesetting, rubdown letters, public domain clip art, stencils and more. Fella was given the name "the king of zing" because of his whimsical illustration style he had. During the 60s and 70s Fella felt that his commercial work was not enough for him and he became very active in Detroit's cultural scene. He offered his services to some alternative art institutions and became the designer for the Detroit Focus gallery. There he created dozens of event posters and directed the Detroit Focus Quarterly. These clients gave Fella the opportunity to print and make public work similar to the experimental designs he had been creating in private. Fella used a positive photostat machine and made collages with images and type that had been readily available. One of Fella's main creative outlet was his after the fact posters. These posters were made to give to those attending events, he made a small number of posters to give to people that attended the event instead of making a bunch of posters for only a small number of people to see beforehand. He made these posters for lectures and for appearances he made. In making posters for people attending the event he had more creative freedom; he did not have to appeal to a commercial audience. The posters helped him to expand his body of work. In 1985 Fella retired from the commercial industry and decided to go back to school and enrolled in Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Edward Fella (born 1938) is an American graphic designer, artist and educator. He created the OutWest typeface in 1993. 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. He was the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Medal. He was also the recipient of a Chrysler Award in 1997. Curt Cloninger called Fella "the contemporary master of hand-drawn typography."

Edward Fella was born in Detroit, MI in 1938 to a middle-class family and attended Cass Technical High School, a magnet school in Detroit where he studied lettering, illustration, paste-up and other commercial-art techniques. He graduated from Cass Tech in 1957 and went into the commercial graphic industry.