School of Art Newsletter Fall 07 vol. 2 issue 1

Graduating Senior: Val Lehnerd

 

Val Lehnerd has made graphic design his life. Though he began his career as a paramedic firefighter, Lehnerd has spent the last five years on a journey to obtain his BFA in Visual Communication. The circumstances leading up to his pursuit of a new career path are both tragic and remarkable. Lehnerd describes his career as a paramedic firefighter as “thriving”, but in 1994, he was involved in an on the job accident that could have ended his life. Surviving with fifteen broken vertebrae, he spent the next two years in bed and, in the years thereafter, recovering from surgeries and learning to walk again.

Lehnerd asserts that art and creating have always been at the core of who he is, and knowing he could no longer continue firefighting, he decided to go back to school in the arts. Since then, he has dedicated himself to his education, demonstrating his academic abilities and, in addition, has met with success in the field of graphic design outside of the University. Lehnerd is an active member of the American Advertising Federation, the American Institute of Graphic Art’s state board, and is working as the director of AIGA Tucson. He will graduate this December with high honors, not only with a BFA from UA, but also with associate degrees in Liberal Arts, Graphic Design, and General Studies from Pima Community College.

Lehnerd credits his success to a positive attitude, determination, and strength: “I have overcome some large obstacles that have forced drastic changes in my life,” he states, “but those obstacles did not stop me from achieving my goals, [they] only made me stronger”. As a boy, Lehnerd took the Boy Scout oath, and continues to uphold his pledge to be “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”.

As a designer, two of Lehnerd’s greatest influences are 1950’s typographers Herbert Bayer and Paul Rand. Bayer, a graphic designer and architect, studied under and published for the Bauhaus, working in the spirit of reductive minimalism; Rand is best known for his corporate logo designs, such as IBM, ABC, Westinghouse, and UPS. Doyald Young, famous for logotypes and corporate alphabets, is a hero and friend. Lehnerd and Young met at an AIGA conference, when 83-year-old Young mistook Lehnerd’s room for his own. Lehnerd helped Young find his room, at the time not knowing who he was.  They were properly introduced the next day, and have been friends ever since. Lehnerd hopes to bring Young to the School of Art next spring as a guest speaker.

As Lehnerd leaves the UA to begin his career as a graphic designer, he takes with him numerous awards and honors. Most recently, he received four Gold Addy Awards, the AIGA Prisma Peoples’ Choice Award, and the UA faculty-appointed award for Best Senior Designer. He has also been nominated for the prestigious University of Arizona Centennial Achievement Undergraduate Student Award, which is granted to a student who has earned a degree in the face of adversity.  Lehnerd is especially proud to have been awarded the Best Senior Designer award and is honored to be among the nominees for the Centennial award.

 

 

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