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 at Parsons School of Design in New York. She established Tenazas Design in San Francisco in 1985, working on identity systems and communication design projects for cultural and non-profit organisations.

Lucille’s work sits at the intersection of typography and linguistics, with design that reflects complex and poetic means of visual expression. Her work has been exhibited in museums, including a solo exhibition at SFMoMA. She was the national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts from 1996-98 and was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2013, for her lifetime contribution to design practice and outstanding leadership in design education. She was the recipient of the National Design Award for Communication Design from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, in 2002.

Originally from Manila, the Philippines, Lucille came to the United States in 1979 to pursue graduate studies, first at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and then at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she received her MFA in Design. She is an authority in the evolving state of design education and has conducted workshops throughout the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.