Lucille Tenazas (born December 17, 1953) is a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

, educator, and the founder of Tenazas Design. Her work consists of layered imagery and

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

, focusing on the importance of

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

. She was born in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, yet has spent a large portion of her life practicing in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Her work includes projects for the

Henry Art Gallery The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is a contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the Un ...

, Rizzoli International,

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

, the Stanford University Art Museum, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Tenazas is Henry Wolf Professor and former Associate Dean in the School of Art, Media and Technology (AMT) at

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

in New York.

Career

Tenazas was born on December 17, 1953, in the

and raised in

. As a child, she won national painting contests. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the

College of the Holy Spirit Manila The College of the Holy Spirit Manila, or simply CHSM, was a private, Catholic education institution founded and ran by the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit in Manila, Philippines. Founded in 1913, College of the Holy Spirit Mani ...

. In the mid-1970s, her aunt in Michigan offered to pay for postgraduate tuition in the United States. Unable to find a closer school to her aunt and misunderstanding the country's geography, she enrolled at the

California College of Arts and Crafts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a Private university, private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened ...

(now CCA), and moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1979. Upon graduation, she began working for the pharmaceutica companies Bristol-Myers and Smith Kline Corporation.Fox, Amy. "Tenazas, Lucille." Grove Art Online. 20. Oxford University Press. While visiting her aunt in Michigan in December 1979, she stopped by

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. It is the art school of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Located in Bloomfield Hills, Mi ...

to show

Katherine McCoy Katherine McCoy (born October 12, 1945) is an American graphic designer and educator, best known for her work as the co-chair of the graduate Design program for Cranbrook Academy of Art. During her extensive career spanning education and profes ...

her portfolio. McCoy accepted Tenazas as a mid-year transfer student at Cranbrook, receiving an MFA in 2-D Design. Here she studied under Michael and Katherine McCoy where they did philosophical and theoretical exploration. Here, she was exposed to the work of several notable designers such as Eliel and

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including the General Motors Technical Center; the pa ...

, and

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

and

Ray Eames Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media. In creative partnership with her husband, Charles Eames, and The Eames Office, she was ...

. The Cranbrook curriculum had been known for testing limits to visual and communication theories. For many students, it made their work fall under a distinct 'Cranbrook signature', but it equipped Tenazas with intellectual rigor and the ability to push the boundaries of her content. After graduating from Cranbrook in 1981, Tenazas moved to NYC to begin work with

James River Corporation James River Corporation was an American pulp and paper company based in Richmond, Virginia, once the largest paper manufacturer in the world. History The company was founded in 1969 as the James River Paper Company by Brenton Halsey and Robert W ...

. Following this, she began working for Harmon Kemp, a notable New York corporate communications consultancy. With Harmon Kemp, Tenazas gained recognition due to her designs for

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 39,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

. In 1985, Tenazas moved to San Francisco for a faculty position at the

where she would continue to work for 20 years. In 2000, she became a founding chair in the graphic design MFA program at CCA. She felt that the new graduate program ought to develop student's ideas through a process of self-discovery. This process of self-discovery is evident in the program's interdisciplinary focus which brings together theory and practice to develop the individual's personal voice in design. While in California, she founded her design firm, Tenazas Design. The firm is known for its small stage setting and emphasis on work-life balance. The work is known for dealing with themes of hierarchy, control, and layered meaning through images and words. Emphasis on language and the weight of words is a constant theme in her design work. The firm has since been moved to New York City. Tenazas spent many years working with the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), starting as an event organizer for the San Francisco chapter, and then later becoming a member of the national board. She was the President of the (

AIGA The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. The ...

) from 1996 to 1998, becoming the first to be based outside of New York. This led to an expansion of various local chapters; there are now 73 chapters across the United States. In 2013, she was awarded the AIGA Medal. As a commemoration of Tenaza's achievements and contributions to the design world, the then mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, declared May 15, 1996 as Lucille Tenazas Day. This was ultimately initiated by the Filipino-American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1996, the

held a retrospective of her work. She moved to New York in 2006 with Richard Barnes, her husband, and their two children. She and her husband, a photographer, designed a poster for 2AES, an architectural group in San Francisco. She is the

Henry Wolf Henry Wolf (May 23, 1925 – February 14, 2005) was an Austrian-born, American graphic designer, photographer and art director. He influenced and energized magazine design during the 1950s and 1960s with his bold layouts, elegant typography, an ...

Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Art, Media and Technology (AMT) at the

Awards

In 2002, Tenazas was awarded the National Design Award in Communications Design by the

Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one ...

. Tenazas was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2013 for "her prominent role in translating postmodern ideas into critical design practice; her exploration of the relationship between type, photography and language; and the development and leadership of highly-respected design education programs—always with exquisite execution."

Notable clientele

* Espirit *

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...

Royal Viking Line The Royal Viking Line was a luxury cruise line that operated from 1972 until 1998. The company was the brainchild of Warren Titus and had its headquarters at One Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, California. History The First Ships Each ...

Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and film archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director ...

* Center for the Arts *

Yerba Buena Gardens Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in the South of Market (SoMA) neighbourhood of San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and How ...

* Rizzoli International *

* Stanford University Art Museum

External links

Tenazas Design

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenazas, Lucille 1953 births American graphic designers AIGA medalists American women graphic designers American women academics Filipino emigrants to the United States Living people California College of the Arts alumni Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni Parsons School of Design faculty California College of the Arts faculty 21st-century American women