Events
The Past is Always Present: Relevance and Longevity in Design Practice
with Lucille Tenazas
At the intersection of typography and linguistics, a designer and educator continues to create complex and poetic visual expression.
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“When I think of Lucille Tenazas, the phrase ‘soft power’ comes to mind: not the political definition, but a graphic-design version, based on the persuasiveness of her ideas, the beauty of her work and the consistency of her intelligent voice. Tenazas, who radiates focus, engagement and calm, is a charismatic leader and design practitioner who has spent years in the classroom, nurturing an entire generation of designers.”
—Lorraine Wild, from the essay on Lucille Tenazas, 2013 AIGA Medalist
In this salon, Lucille will talk about the linguistic approaches that underpin her work in a consistent thread over the course of over four decades. Inspired by modernist approaches gleaned from Russian Constructivism and Dutch De Stijl, her work reflects a rigorous architectonic quality with an intuitive sense of form.
The Past is Always Present lecture series is part of The 10th Anniversary Symposium celebrating ten years of Letterform Archive.
This event will be recorded. Please register for the event and you will receive an email when the video is available.
Lucille Tenazas
Lucille Tenazas is an educator and graphic designer based in New York and San Francisco. She is the Henry Wolf Professor of Communication Design in the School of Art, Media and Technology (AMT) at Parsons School of Design in New York. She was the founding chair of the MFA Design Program at California College of the Arts (CCA), launched in 2000, with an emphasis on form-giving, teaching, and leadership.
Lucille established Tenazas Design in San Francisco in 1985 and continues her design practice in New York. Her work is at the intersection of typography and linguistics, with design that reflects complex and poetic means of visual expression. She was the national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1996-98 and was awarded the AIGA Medal for lifetime achievement in design in 2013. She received the National Design Award for Communication Design by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in 2002.
Originally from Manila, the Philippines, she has taught and practiced in the United States since 1979, a trajectory that included living in San Francisco, Rome, Italy and New York. She studied at CCA and received her MFA in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Lucille is an authority in the evolving state of design education and has conducted workshops throughout the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
