Penn State alumna continues Arts Fest | Penn State, State College News

After graduating from Penn State in 2017, Saige Sommese had a family legacy to continue. 

Sommese’s late father, Lanny Sommese, designed the Arts Fest poster for 45 years before his daughter took over the project in 2020.

Before he passed, her father would ask her opinion on things like color and typography.

Sommese said her father’s posters had a very particular style, so she often looks back at his old works for inspiration to capture that same “whimsical feeling” in her designs.

“There’s so much of his work because he did posters for so many things — not just Arts Fest,” Sommese said. “So I’m really lucky to really have an entire arsenal of his work at my disposal.”

Graphic design has been in Sommese’s blood since she was young. Both her parents were professors of graphic design at Penn State, and her brother is also a graphic designer.

“I felt like I was living and breathing graphic design as I was growing up, just from hearing about my parents’ students’ work and their own freelance careers,” she said.

Sommese said her family’s strong background helped her gain confidence as she entered the graphic design industry.

Penn State also helped prepare her with the skills she needed to take over the poster design project because of its “demanding and rigorous” graphic design program.

“The transition happened pretty organically — once my dad wasn’t able to design it anymore, it was pretty natural that I took over,” Sommese said.

Kristin Sommese, Saige’s mother, taught graphic design as a professor for 30 years at Penn State before becoming a professor emerita.

“Lanny and I collaborated quite a bit in our work together as professors at Penn State, and we also had a business together called Sommese Design,” Kristin said.

Kristin said she loves that her daughter has continued her father’s legacy, and it’s very exciting to see some of Lanny’s old works come to life, especially after his passing in 2022.

“It’s all very interesting because a lot of times when Saige was little, her dad would be inspired by her artwork,” Kristin said.

Kristin added that she’s recently been working on designing an art exhibit to celebrate her late husband’s graphic design accomplishments, alongside her co-curator, Urszula Kulakowski, former art director for the Center for Performing Arts at Penn State.

The art exhibit, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 12-13 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, will feature many of Lanny’s works on human rights, peace, the environment and endangered species, as well as 36 different Arts Fest poster designs.

Kristin has also been contributing her thoughts and ideas to the Arts Fest poster design since 1989.

“Oftentimes the poster will be better because of the collaboration we have as a family and the different thoughts we pull from each other,” Kristin said.

Theresa Ritzman, owner of Connections on Allen Street, met Sommese in middle school through mutual friends.

Before graduating in 2016 from Penn State, Ritzman and Sommese worked together at Connections. 

Ritzman said Sommese has done a bunch of work for her since she bought the business in 2019, including website design, social media management, graphic design work and even renovation designs for her house.

Ritzman said her favorite part about Sommese designing the poster was the moment when she got to hang one up in the front window of Connections.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling of hanging up such an amazing piece of art that thousands of people will see and knowing your best friend created it,” Ritzman said.

Ritzman said it’s important for Sommese to keep the traditional feel of the posters alive, while “adding a new perspective to them with her own twist on things.”

“Seeing the amount of work that Saige puts into the posters is pretty wild,” Ritzman said. “It’s not an easy process. She spends hours and hours on the posters, and I don’t think people realize how much work goes into it.” 

Sommese recalled one of her fondest memories from middle school, when she went to a friend’s house and discovered his family had about 30 Arts Fest posters hung up on the walls in their basement.

“It was just so funny because they didn’t even know that it was my dad who designed those,” Sommese said.

Sommese said she thinks it’s cool how the posters have become collectibles over the years.

“I love to see that the poster seems to be representative of a specific place and time for people in their minds,” Sommese said.

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