Lucille Tenazas

The founding chair of the MFA Design program at CCA, Lucille Tenazas is currently the Henry Wolf Professor of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design, where she served as associate dean of the School of Art, Media, and Technology from 2013 to 2020. Originally from Manila, the Philippines, Tenazas has taught and practiced in the United States since 1979. Tenazas’ design work is at the intersection of typography and linguistics, with design that reflects complex and poetic means of visual expression.

Tenazas is a trustee of the American Craft Council and was the national president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1996–1998, the first appointment outside of New York in the organization’s then 80-year history. She was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2013 for her lifetime contribution to design practice and outstanding leadership in design education. She received the National Design Award in Communication Design from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Her work has been featured in many national and international publications and exhibitions, including a one-person exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and surveys at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In commemoration of her contributions to design, then Mayor Willie Brown declared May 15, 1996 as Lucille Tenazas Day in San Francisco. An authority in the evolving state of design education, Tenazas has conducted workshops in institutions throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.