Grafica Della Strada ─ The Signs of Italy

After vino, pasta, and cheese, signs are Italy's most iconic product. Italy is the birthplace of the Western alphabet, and beautiful signs are everywhere. From stone inscriptions and reliefs to neon lighting and illuminated glass, Graphica della Strada is a photographic diary of hundreds of restaurant, shop, hotel, street, and advertising signs from cites and towns throughout Italy. Spare, ornate, or wildy fanciful, they are painted on glass, wood, and metal; some are enamel, still others mosaic. From thousands of signs, photographed over two decades, renowned graphic designer Louise Fili curates a captivating collection of her colorful, whimsical, typographically inventive, and often breathtaking favorites. Designers and Italophiles alike will be charmed by this visually stunning typographic love letter to Italy.

Louise Fili is director of Louise Fili Ltd, a New York–based design studio specializing in logo, package, restaurant, and book design. Formerly senior designer for Herb Lubalin, Louise Fili was art director of Pantheon Books from 1978 to 1989, where she designed close to 2000 book jackets. She has received Gold and Silver Medals from The Society of Illustrators and New York Art Directors Club, the Premio Grafico from the Bologna Book Fair, and three James Beard award nominations. Fili has taught and lectured on graphic design and typography, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congree, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts design grant.

Fili is the author of Elegantissima, published by Princeton Architectural Press. She has also written The Civilized Shopper's Guide to Florence and co-authored Italianissimo. With her husband, the design historian Steven Heller, she is co-author of Italian Art Deco, British Modern, Dutch Moderne, Streamline, French Modern, Deco Espana, German Modern, Design Connoisseur, Typology, Stylepedia, Euro Deco, and Scripts. In 2004, she was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame.