The professional life of Lanny Sommese, distinguished professor emeritus, internationally recognized poster designer, painter, illustrator, and writer is not easily summarized. Legendary for his highly demanding pedagogical approach to design, his brutally honest yet insightful critiques were often tempered by his sharp wit. He made an indelible mark upon design education internationally and the lives of many: as one former student wrote, “It seemed like we could never catch our breath, until we realized he was training us for altitude.” Undoubtedly, Sommese was instrumental in the successful careers and achievements of multiple generations of graphic design students throughout his fifty years at Penn State University.

 

His work as a prolific poster designer is noted both nationally and internationally for it’s power of and immediacy in communication of social, political, and environmental statements. Through his use of symbolism, line quality, color, typography and image simultaneity he captured the audiences attention and created a visual that was in sync with its’ message. Sommese was known to be passionate and consistent regarding his hand generated and often raw looking imagery. Throughout the years and constantly changing technological capabilities, he resisted the trends to which many a designers has fallen prey. The last step in Lanny’s design process was usually the computer.

 

Sommese was a longstanding member of the prestigious Alliance Graphique International (AGI), an organization that includes the most noted designers throughout the world. In addition, he was a Fellow of Penn State’s Institute for Arts and Humanities, an honorary member of the University and College Designers Association, and a founding member and Fellow of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA).

 

Over the years, Sommese has had a number of solo exhibitions in venues such as the Plakat Museum in Emmerich, Germany; the University of Illinois; and the Colorado State University. His work has been exhibited in the prestigious Warsaw, Lahti, and Colorado Poster Biennials; the Festival D’Affiches de Chaumont; the Golden Bee; the Toyoma and Trnava Poster Triennials; the Brno Biennial of Graphic Design; the Ogaki International Invitational Poster Exhibition; the New York Type Directors Club Show; and the New York and Los Angeles Art Directors Club Shows. 

 

His work was awarded gold medals in the International Biennial of the Poster of Mexico in 1994 and the Triennial of Stage Poster Sofia in 1995. Sommese’s posters have also been included in numerous collections including: the Museum for Deutsche Geschichte, Berlin; Muzeum Plakatu w Wilanowie, Warsaw; Musee D’Histoire Contemporaine, Paris; The Central Institute of Fine Art, Beijing; Moravaska Galerie, Brno; Kanazawa University, Japan; The Museum of Applied Art, Helsinki; The Penn State Paterno Library, and the Library of Congress National Poster Collection.

 

Feature articles of his work have appeared in Graphis, Idea, Communication Arts, Step-by-Step, and Novum Gebrauchsgraphik. In addition, Sommese was the subject of a book entitled Lanny Sommese: World Master and Lanny Sommese: X-Ray Vision.” His images have been reproduced in countless periodicals including Graphis, Novum Gebrauchsgraphik, Communication Arts, How, Applied Arts, Idea, and Print Magazine. Books with his work featured include Graphis, Graphic Agitation, The Print Casebooks, Creativity Annual, Poster: Collections of Contemporary American Designers, A History of Graphic Design and A History of Contemporary Graphic Design. Additionally, Sommese has lectured internationally on his work and on various design related subject matter.

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