Louise Fili on her Italian influences -Trailer

"Italy is my greatest source of inspiration, both typographically and gastronomically," Louise Fili said at Design Indaba Conference 2013.

She's been obsessively photographing all things to do with Italy and eating -- two of her great passions -- which has become the archive that she draws upon in her creative endeavours.

Here she talks about creating her own "typographic oasis" in New York City and the years she worked as an art director at Pantheon Books, where she designed more than 10 000 book jackets. Fili explains why one doesn't need to shout, typographically, to be heard, and shares two important lessons in running your own studio. The first lesson is to never limit yourself to just one type of work or client, and the second is that you should never just sit around waiting for the phone to ring.

Fili believes that designers need to have their own projects to find their personal design voice. She showed examples of her designs for restaurants, food packaging and her unique treatment of the copyright page in the front of books.

Design Indaba is a multi-tiered platform committed to a better world through creativity. Established in 1995 with its flagship conference, it has evolved into a multidisciplinary experience that now consists of the globally acclaimed annual Design Indaba Conference, Simulcast, Expo and FilmFest, as well as a host of parties, performances, training workshops, design projects, community initiatives and publications.