Markenentwicklung mit anspruchsvollem Design. Wir entwickeln visuelle Identitäten und Kommunikationslösungen für Unternehmen, Institutionen und Projekte – von Corporate Design und Markenkommunikation über Printmedien und Websites bis hin zu individuellen Kommunikationsmaßnahmen. Unser Anspruch sind Lösungen, die eigenständig, konsistent und präzise auf die jeweilige Aufgabe zugeschnitten sind. Nationale und internationale Auszeichnungen begleiten unsere Arbeit seit vielen Jahren. Entscheidend ist für uns jedoch der nachhaltige Erfolg unserer Auftraggeber und das Vertrauen, das aus einer langfristigen Zusammenarbeit entsteht.

Wir verstehen uns als langfristiger Partner unserer Kunden und begleiten Projekte von der ersten Idee und Namensentwicklung bis zur umfassenden visuellen Kommunikation. Ebenso realisieren wir gezielte Einzelprojekte für bereits etablierte Unternehmen. Mit einem agilen Team und einem bewährten Netzwerk verbinden wir unterschiedliche Kompetenzen und internationale Erfahrung mit einer persönlichen, direkten Zusammenarbeit. Dabei entstehen Lösungen nicht nach einem festen Schema, sondern im Dialog – mit Neugier, gestalterischer Präzision und dem Anspruch, für jede Aufgabe eine eigenständige und überzeugende Antwort zu finden.

As a creative agency with a wide range of project experience, we offer Graphic Design and Brand Consulting with expertise in Brand Development, Brand As a design and communications studio, we combine strategic brand development with sophisticated design. We create visual identities and communication solutions for companies, institutions and projects – from corporate design and brand communication to print, websites and individually tailored campaigns. Our aim is to create solutions that are distinctive, consistent and precisely aligned with each project. Our work has received national and international recognition over the years, but what matters most to us is the lasting success of our clients and the trust that grows through long-term collaboration.

We see ourselves as a long-term creative partner, accompanying projects from the initial idea and naming process through to comprehensive visual communication. We also develop individual projects for established companies with specific communication needs. Working with an agile team and a trusted network of specialists, we bring together diverse expertise, international experience and close personal collaboration. We do not believe in predetermined solutions. The strongest results emerge through dialogue – with curiosity, creative precision and the ambition to find a distinctive and compelling response to every challenge.

Harald-M. Lehnardt, Creative Director 

I am a German Creative Director with more than 25 years of international experience in visual communication, brand development, editorial design and advertising. After studying Visual Communication in Germany, a Fulbright Scholarship took me to New York City, where I earned my Master’s degree in Media Studies and went on to work as an Art Director and Creative Director.

In 2005, after 14 years in Manhattan, I traded New York City for the North Shore of Oʻahu. Instead of rushing down 34th Street on my way to the office, I could start the day running from Sunset Beach toward Banzai Pipeline – and occasionally, a “board meeting” really did take place behind the house. After twelve years in Hawaiʻi, I returned to Germany in 2017, bringing with me the experience and perspectives of 26 years in the United States. Today, my European roots, New York energy and the openness I experienced in Hawaiʻi continue to shape my approach to design, collaboration and the way I see the world – always curious, open to new ideas and ready for the next creative challenge.

I have always believed that good design begins with curiosity – with the ability to see, to listen and to recognize what makes an idea, a place or a brand distinctive. Typography, imagery and visual storytelling have been at the heart of my work throughout my career, supported by the technical experience needed to turn creative ideas into thoughtful, well-crafted solutions. I still approach every new project with the same enthusiasm and the desire to keep learning, exploring and developing as a designer.

Over the years, my work has encompassed corporate identities, advertising, editorial and book design, exhibitions, signage, digital communication and brand development. Projects have included work for Conservation International in Washington, Applied Brilliance and The Fashion Group in New York, as well as Banzai Bowls, Weddings of Hawaii, Naked Cow Dairy and KM Boards Hawaii. I have also contributed to projects for Coco Palms on Kauaʻi, Kaʻanapali Coffee Farms on Maui, and Hōkūliʻa and Kūkiʻo on Hawaiʻi Island. Alongside commercial projects, I have worked with nonprofit organizations and taught at Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Today, dolceVita Creative brings this international experience to projects in Germany and beyond. Together with a flexible network of specialists, we work across brand development, corporate design, print and digital communication, websites and increasingly large-scale environmental and wall design. Depending on the project, we can become an external creative resource, collaborate with existing teams or accompany a project from its first idea through to final implementation. What remains constant is a personal approach, close dialogue with our clients and the ambition to create work that is distinctive, relevant and built to last.

Background info about my life and my profession

I studied Visual Communication at the Faculty of Design in Bielefeld, Germany, before moving to New York City as a Fulbright Scholar in 1991. There, I continued my studies at The New School and Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, earning a Master of Arts in Media Studies. New York became my home for the next 14 years and shaped both my professional career and my approach to design. During this time, I worked as an Art Director and later Senior Art Director, including at Macy’s headquarters, where my work focused on advertising and visual communication for fragrance, cosmetics and watches.

In 2005, I exchanged my loft on Manhattan’s West Side for a small house in the Pūpūkea Hills on Oʻahu’s North Shore and began a new chapter of my career in Hawaiʻi. Working as a Design Director in Honolulu introduced me to a very different creative environment and eventually led to collaborations on branding, identity and communication projects throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

Over the following years, I worked with multidisciplinary creative teams on projects ranging from brand development and corporate identity to advertising, editorial design and visual communication. The experience reinforced something that has remained central to the way I work today: strong creative solutions rarely emerge in isolation. Sharing ideas, combining different talents and allowing unexpected directions to develop can transform a good project into something genuinely distinctive.

My work in the United States and Europe has received a number of national and international design awards, including several Pele Awards and recognition from AIGA Honolulu. I also had the opportunity to teach at Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, with courses in Desktop Publishing, Design & Project Management and Visual Poetry. Teaching added another dimension to my work – articulating creative processes and sharing experience with people developing their own visual language.

In the summer of 2017, after 26 years in the United States – 14 in New York and 12 in Hawaiʻi – I returned to Germany to care for my father and begin another chapter in my creative life. Returning to where I grew up did not feel like simply going back. I brought with me more than two decades of experiences, influences and friendships that continue to inform the way I see design, collaboration and the world around me.

In the fall of 2019, I stepped away from work for several weeks to walk the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain. Starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, I crossed the Pyrenees and walked nearly 800 kilometers to Santiago de Compostela. During those five weeks, I met people from more than 35 countries. Different languages, cultures and backgrounds mattered surprisingly little; what connected us was the shared experience of the Camino. Many of those encounters carried something I had come to value deeply during my years in Hawaiʻi: ʻohana – a sense of family and belonging.

The Camino reinforced my belief that creativity, like life, is about connection, curiosity and remaining open to what happens along the way. I am as passionate as ever about design, art, travel and writing, and I continue to enjoy collaborating with people who bring their own experience, ideas and perspective to a project.

I believe that good people find ways to connect, one way or another.
Thank you for taking the time to explore my work.

Mahalo nui loa.

Harald-M. Lehnardt
Creative Director & Principal | dolceVita Creative
www.dolcevitacreative.com
Fine Arts & Communication
harald@dolcevitacreative.com

Kuliana Edition (Fine Art Publishing)

Unique Contemporary Artwork from the Hawaiian Islands

Kuliana Edition presents contemporary fine art inspired by Hawaiʻi, its history, surf culture, landscape and the Pacific. Limited editions and thematic series combine photography, typography and graphic composition, often bringing nostalgic references into a contemporary visual context.

The collection is available in a range of formats and carefully selected materials, from fine-art papers and canvas to aluminum and acrylic. Selected works can be personalized, and custom editions are available upon request. Each piece is created to bring a distinctive sense of place, atmosphere and story into contemporary interiors and personal spaces.

HOW IT ALL STARTED
Sometimes the smallest events become part of a much larger story.

In 2003, I returned a rock to Hawaiʻi that my mother had taken home from a vacation three years earlier. I carried it from Germany to New York, then to Los Angeles and finally back to Oʻahu, where I returned it near an old heiau in Pūpūkea on the North Shore. At the time, I was still living in Manhattan and had no idea that two years later I would leave New York, move to Hawaiʻi and make my home less than half a mile from that very place.

Coincidence or not, that journey became part of a much larger one.

I originally studied Visual Communication in Germany with an emphasis on photography and film before turning increasingly toward graphic design and typography. Bauhaus, Constructivism and Abstract Expressionism fascinated me, as did the work of designers and artists who challenged conventional relationships between typography, photography and meaning. Text gradually became as important to me as image.

A Fulbright Scholarship brought me to New York City in 1991, where I continued my studies at Parsons School of Design and The New School. My Master’s thesis explored the interaction of text and image in fine-art photography, including the work of Barbara Kruger, Gilbert & George and Duane Michals, alongside an examination of my own work.

That synergy between text and image remains at the heart of my artistic practice today.

Words, fragments of language and individual letters can change the way we experience an image. They can suggest a story, raise a question, introduce another layer of meaning or simply create a moment of poetry. I am interested in that space between what we see and what we read – and in what happens when the two begin to interact.

Fourteen years in New York and twelve years on Oʻahu profoundly influenced the way I see and create. New York gave me typography, visual energy and an international perspective; Hawaiʻi introduced another rhythm, another relationship with nature and a deeper awareness of place, culture and community. Both continue to inform my work.

Kuliana Edition grew from these experiences. The Hawaiian word kuleana carries ideas of responsibility, privilege and a personal relationship to what we are entrusted with. For me, the edition became a way to bring photography, typography, memory and place together – while continuing to experiment with materials, techniques and new forms of visual expression.

Collaboration has also remained an important part of that journey. I have been fortunate to learn from professors, mentors, designers, artists and creative partners in Germany, New York and Hawaiʻi. Their different perspectives reinforced my belief that creative work becomes richer when knowledge is shared and ideas are allowed to evolve through dialogue.

Today, Kuliana Edition brings together works shaped by a journey that began in Germany, continued through New York and eventually crossed the Pacific to Hawaiʻi. Some pieces are quiet and contemplative, others graphic, typographic or strongly influenced by the visual culture and history of the islands. What connects them is a fascination with image, language, memory and place.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and explore the work. I hope you discover a piece that connects with you – and perhaps brings a little of the spirit and atmosphere of Hawaiʻi into your own space.

Aloha,
Harald-M. Lehnardt