UCDA is saddened to hear about the loss of design legend, educator, honorary member, and friend Lanny Sommese, pictured in 2016 (photo by Abby Drey).
Born in East Moline, Illinois in 1943, Lanny Sommese became a member of the Penn State University faculty in 1970 and was an Emeritus Professor of Graphic Design after his retirement. He is a graduate of the University of Florida where he received a BFA in painting and a Bachelor of Design Degree. He earned the MFA in Graphic Design at the University of Illinois. Additionally, Lanny is a Fellow of Penn State’s Institute for Arts and Humanities, an honorary member of the University and College Designers Association, a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, and was selected as the Fellow of the AIGA Philadelphia Chapter in 2010.
Lanny was the head of Penn State’s graphic design program for more than 45 years and designed the annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts poster for 48 years, many of which have won the UCDA Design Awards (he has been honored with nearly two dozen since 1979) and are now part of the UCDA Deign Collection.
According to an obituary posted on his website. “Lanny had a larger than life personality, but his work was also larger than life too,” Rick Bryant, executive director of the Arts Fest, said. “He had a big personality and his work was fantastic.”
Left to right: The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts posters from 1998, 2000, and 2003 which all won in the UCDA Design Awards (images courtesy of the UCDA Design Collection).
The posters have since become the identity of the Arts Fest, Bryant said. “The posters really helped establish that sophisticated, visual identity for the Arts Festival. You know, anybody who looks at one knows that… we’re not a fireman’s carnival, this isn’t somebody selling crochet toilet paper covers,” Bryant said. “This is a thing with real art and real music, and it’s fun. The posters are joyful and so much of that is due to Lanny.”
Lanny in 2016 said “the challenge of giving the arts fest a fresh new face each year and the opportunity to experiment with new metaphoric mixes and stylistic approaches” is part of what kept him coming back year after year. His daughter, Saige Sommese, designed some Arts Fest posters with her father and most recently started with some of his old sketches and added in some of her own ideas.
“We would get a call every year just before the UCDA Design Awards entry deadline from Lanny,” recalls Tadson Bussey, UCDA executive director. “Did I make it? Or did I miss the deadline?” Lanny would ask. Tadson added, “Lanny was always so proud of his Arts Fest posters—they became the only thing he would enter after he retired.”
His work has been included in important exhibitions all over the world, has won countless awards, and has been reproduced in hundreds of periodicals and books, including Graphis, The New York Times, Communication Arts, A History of Graphic Design, A History of Contemporary Graphic Design, and Designer magazine.
Left to right: The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts posters from 2011, 2012, and 2015 which all won in the UCDA Design Awards (images courtesy of the UCDA Design Collection).
As a past UCDA Design Conference speaker and UCDA Design Awards judge, Lanny has lectured about his work and the Penn State Design Program across the globe and has written extensively about graphic design as the North American Correspondent for Novum, a German monthly design publication, since 1976.
More
https://www.lannysommesedesigns.com/riplanny
https://artvee.com/artist/lanny-sommese