Hasta La Ideas

Louise Fili’s copyright page for The Tea Council’s Guide to the Best Tea Places in England, published by The Little Bookroom, 2002

Setting the mandatory page of copyright text is one of the more mundane tasks faced by a book designer – unless you are Louise Fili

CR is at the Design Indaba conference this week where we will be posting some highlights from the talks. This morning’s session featured Louise Fili, a designer who, despite being one of the New York’s finest, is probably not as well-known in the UK as she should be.

One of the great traits of designers is to question why something has to be the way it is. Among the projects Fili showed was her first attempt to do something more interesting with the copyright text which publishers are obliged to include in the introductory pages of books and which most are loathe to do anything remotely attractive with. She showed a page from a book on gardening where she had transformed the legalese into the shape of a tree. A battle with the publisher ensued bu Fili finally got her way and has made such typographic styling something of a trademark.

Copyright page for BloshBlobBerBosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear, Creative Editions, 1998

There are more example in Elegantissima, the 2012 book on Fili’s work,

And, of course, the copyright text to the book has its own treatment – a reference to the fact that the bulk of Fili’s work is for restaurants and food packaging

See more of Louise Fili’s work here

CR in print
The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.

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