Designer Louise Fili

For my inspiring designer, I’ve chosen Louise Fili.

Fili is a graphic designer, born in New Jersy in 1951 her work is heavily influenced by art deco and retro-futurism. She was ecuated and practiced in New York but her designs draw on Italian and Dutch styles and motifs.

Being a graphic designer, most of her work leans heavily upon typography, and she designed three typfaces: Mardell, an itallian futuerist font, Montecantini, and Marseille, taking on a more art-deco style. The fonts are an extension of her characteristic style, the characters themselves becoming elements of pattern, emphasis and contrast.

What I find most compelling about her work is the color schemes she chooses, and how they pair with the typeface they frame. She uses reduced color palets of desaturated tones, using patterns and outlines to gnerate contrast. The color schemes are non-obvious and unique, but they come together in compelling and unexpected ways.

Design Connoiseur: An Eclectic Collection of Imagery and Type, New York: Allworth Press, 2000