Grafica Della Strada, The Signs Of Italy

It starts with a 16 year old Louise Fili traveling to Italy, stepping off the plane, and falling in love with a billboard. That moment marked the start of Fili’s typographic obsession, and budding career in graphic design.

Louise Fili has been collecting and documenting the signs of Italy since the late 70s. She’s now released that collection in a book titled Grafica Della Strada, The Signs of Italy. This book will prove invaluable for the typographic anthropologist. It runs the gamut of Italian architectural sign styles of which Fili has categorized as Classico (classic), Tradizionale (traditional), and Eclettico (eclectic), followed by more specific groups of Futurista E Fascista (Futurist/Fascist), La Strada (street signs and numbers), La Spiaggia (signs at the seaside), and Fantasma (ghost signs).

Grafica Della Strada, The Signs of Italy
By Louise Fili
Published by Princeton Architectural Press
9 x 6.5″ / 22.9 x 16.5 cm
Hardcover
264 pp
ISBN 978-61689-269-2
$40 / £25
Published September 2014