As a designer, I’m constantly looking for ways to stay inspired, and one of the ways I do is by attending the AIGA events. A couple of weeks ago, Louise Fili was speaking at the Denver Art Museum. For those of you who are unfamiliar with her work, she started a design studio in 1990 that focuses on the three areas that interest her the most: food, type and Italy.
One of the things that impressed me the most was that even though she has definitely developed a niche of Italian-inspired design, there is so much variety within those designs. Take a look.
I was also extremely inspired by her determination to make her designs tactile. Here, she convinced the owner of the Metro Grill, a restaurant located in the garment district of New York, to create the logo from an actual stitched clothing label.
In this example, the restaurant, Metrazur, was located on the mezzanine of Grand Central Terminal and was named for a railroad line along the French Riviera. The business card was appropriately letterpressed as a luggage tag.
During the Q & A portion of the presentation, someone asked Louise about her relationship with the computer. She started laughing and eventually admitted that she uses the computer for email and internet browsing, but that was about it. I started to think about how that impacts her work. She mentioned that she creates a lot of the typefaces she uses by hand or finds them in old magazines and then fills in the missing letters. She said that she is constantly collecting inspiration from the streets and flea markets on her travels. She even told us about going out and buying a bedazzler for one of her book covers. I would never have thought about doing that.
The biggest, most inspirational nugget of wisdom I took away from Louise Fili’s presentation is that I need to think outside the computer.
To see more of Louise Fili’s work, visit www.louisefili.com.
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