A member of the faculty since 1970, he has received many awards for his work and has been profiled in a number of publications. His posters were awarded Gold Medals in the International Biennial of the Poster of Mexico, the Triennial of Stage Poster Sofia, the Colorado Poster Biennial and the Poster Biennial of Bolivia. Feature articles about Sommese have appeared in Graphis, Idea, Communication Arts, Step-by-Step and Novum Gebrauchsgraphik. In addition, his work was the subject of the books "Lanny Sommese: World Master" and "Lanny Sommese: X-Ray Vision," published in China. Sommese has had a number of one-man shows at places such as Plakat Museum in Emmerich, Germany, the University of Illinois and Colorado State University.