Lanny Sommese: Graphic Art and When to Stop Making It

“Know when your work is done, then just walk away before you F*ck it all up.”

– Lanny Sommese

 

You can see work by Lanny Sommese (1943-2022) at the Library of Congress. The American graphic designer, poster maker, painter, artist and educator was the founder and longest running member (1976-2022) of the Philadelphia chapter of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts); and a member in the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

He got into graphic design by chance. In 1961, as a freshman at the University of Florida, Sommese was in a book store. “I kicked over a book and the damn thing was about graphic design,” he recalled. “It was called Gebrauschgraphik, one of the major publications for graphic design. I opened the book and I was looking at my future. I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

 

 

“I have always worked across a variety of design venues. However, as my career has progressed I have gravitated toward poster design probably because of the large format and creative freedom that it provides. The advantage of the poster over other media is that a poster is more visceral. Because of its size it is immediate and confrontational—communicating on an emotional as well as intellectual level. This is especially true when the audience is on foot.”

– Lanny Sommese

 

“For me making graphic design and graphic designers has always been joined together, one feeding off the other. I do my work at school as much as at home and I encourage the faculty to do the same. In fact I see the graphic design program as one big design office with art/creative directors (faculty) and a gaggle of junior and senior-level designers/image makers.”

– Lanny Sommese, via Tom Wilder

 

Lanny Sommese Talks Graphic Design

In a video created for the Penn State College of Arts & Architecture’s 50th anniversary. In coversation with Tom Wilder, he explained his approach at Penn State:

“Our belief is that at the heart of each project should be an idea that is fueled by the unique aspects of the problem at hand. The first step in the process is to find out as much as I can about the subject to assure that an idea has specificity. The audience and budget are also considered, as are the functional aspects, such as readability etc. Once a relevant concept is in place it drives the rest of the creative process. In this way the concept, to a large extent, dictates the visual approach… Once a style has been selected, its inherent potentials and characteristics “kick-in” and temper the realization of the final product.

…

“Ideally each project is the product of a perfectly relevant idea manifested by appropriate imagery. It’s restrained—all that is non-essential is eliminated and form appears to flow effortlessly from content. It communicates—targeting an audience that is “tuned-in” to the nuances of meaning surrounding the visual and verbal aspects of the image. The message is, at once, literal and metaphoric and understandable.”

 

 

Work by Lanny Sommese is available in the shop.

His work was the subject of the books Lanny Sommese: World Master and Lanny Sommese: X-Ray Vision.

Via: Lanny Sommerse, LoC,