Two Lines Align

I finally got down to REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles today to check out the new exhibit “Two Lines Align”, featuring drawings and graphic designs by Ed Fella and Geoff McFetridge.

According to the catalog essay, guest curator Michael Worthington attempts to “…explore the shifts in the perceived cultural worth [of art and graphic design] over time…”, by placing Ed Fella’s (b. 1938) and Geoff McFetridge’s (b. 1971) design careers end to end, in a chronological line.

Both artists represent two generations of graphic design, each in eras where design had a different cultural value. Fella, after a successful 30 year career as a designer, sought to approach his practice with more of anartistic aim. Coming from a strong typography background, many of his works push the boundaries of semiotics, layering the meaning of language with graphic signs and symbols. Much of Fella’s art challenges the viewer to peer through illustrative complexity to discern the messages in his text.

Where Fella confounds with intricacy, McFetridge reduces and simplifies. Much of his imagery will seem familiar to those of my generation and younger, who have grown up with skate graphics, cartoons and imagery generated by batallions of clever t-shirt companies. His style is poppy and cute, very much in step with his contemporaries. What was impressive about McFetridge’s work was not so much his visual range, but the ways in which he has applied it to so many products. Imagery was plastered inside of constructed rooms, on wallets and skateboards, and even some record albums.

In comparison, I would say that Fella’s career is that of someone who wanted to do something unique in a time where graphic designers were expected to tailor their style per client’s wishes, while McFetridge has had the luck to start a career in a global market of designer superstars, where branding is as much the identity of the designer as the product he is working for.

The exhibit itself is very well done, and I urge anyone who has any interest in design or visual inventiveness to get down there. A big plus is being able to see the sketchbooks of Ed Fella, which are the real gems of the show, offering up in detail a deeply creative mind.