Louise Fili talked with us Thursday about inspirations, typography, gelato, and more. It was a delight. She started off her presentation by jumping right into what made her want to be a designer: traveling to Italy and being awestruck by the Italian typographic signs. Planning my trip to Italy right away after this talk.

She started her career by working under Herb Lubalin then transitioned to designing book covers. She said that she, “was on a mission to prove you did not have to shout to get someones attention (on a book cover)” and she continued to experiment with elegant typographic solutions to book cover design. She also mentioned that she “avoids standard type” which is great advice for us as growing designers. She continued to share her wisdom by telling us to never depend on the perfect project or client to walk through the door, there is no such thing as the ideal job, as a designer you can turn jobs into dream jobs. Also she suggested to always push out personal projects throughout your career, and seeing her passion projects you can tell that she definitely takes her own advice — very seriously. Her books of collected iItalian type are gorgeous. 

I loved when she started going into all the logos she has done, I was so excited to found out it was her behind so many of my favorite logos. She created the beautiful script logo for Claudette that I pass on my walk home every day, the logo for the sweetest little Italian eatery, Bar Pisellino, and it’s ‘distant cousin’ Via Corota. All very eye catching and original typography. She has also designed three Love stamps that were printed at quantities of 250 million, wow! 

We asked her what was next for her studio and she said she and a few of her designers were going to start a type foundry of Italian inspired typefaces. I am so excited for that to launch! 

We appreciated every minute you gave us Thursday afternoon and hope one day we can all eat gelato together and talk typography, food, and Italy. Thanks again, Louise!