April Greiman
Encyclopedia
April Greiman is a contemporary designer
. "Recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool, Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers
, with establishing the ‘New Wave’ design style in the US during the late 70s and early 80s."
Presently, she heads Los Angeles-based design consultancy Made in Space. "An insistent innovator, April Greiman works at the border zone of the discipline labeled graphic design, at the intersections of video, computer graphics, architecture and environment. She's interested in altering our perceptions of the relationship between two- and three-dimensional space. On the printed page she removes all the coordinates that are normally used to locate the viewer and instead launches the viewer headlong into deep space and saturated color. With buildings, she renders solid walls diaphanous through her application of video imagery in oil paint."
Greiman first studied graphic design in her undergraduate education at the Kansas City Art Institute
, from 1966-1970. Her work further evolved from her 1970-1971 graduate education at the Allgemeine Künstgewerberschule Basel, now known as the Basel School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung Basel
) in Basel, Switzerland. As a student of Armin Hofmann
and Wolfgang Weingart
, Greiman was not only influenced by the International Style
, but also by Weingart's introduction to the style later to become known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on the Modernist heritage. "The Basel school's faculty and graduates began to come to the U.S. in the mid 1960s, with a real impact realized in the early 1970s when young American graphic designers 'in the know' began to migrate to Basel for postgraduate training in graphic design. By the mid 1970s some of this complexity began to embellish basic American "Swiss" graphic design in the form of bars and rules and playful mixing of type sizes, weights and faces in an essentially formalist agenda."
Greiman moved to Los Angeles in 1976, establishing the multi-disciplinary practice which has survived to this day in its current incarnation and name as Made in Space. Proceeding the mid-80s, designers avidly avoided computers and digitalization, viewing them as challenges to the crispness of the International Style. However, Greiman did not feel that this should be a limitation; rather, she exploited pixelation
and other "errors" in digitization as part of digital art.
She has long taught, and continues to do so to this day - currently, at the Academy of Art University, Woodbury University, and The Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc). In 1982 April Greiman became head of the design department at the California Institute of the Arts
. "In 1984 she lobbied successfully to change the department name to Visual Communications, feeling that the term “graphic design” would prove too limiting to future designers. In that year, with her business booming, she decided to switch gears and become a student rather than an educator, to study the effect of technology on her own work. She returned to full-time practice and acquired her first Macintosh." She was later to take the Grand Prize in Mac World's First Macintosh Masters in Art Competition.
"An early adopter of the Macintosh
computer, in 1986 Greiman used its rudimentary capabilities to create an issue of the journal Design Quarterly that has since become one of the key staging posts in the evolution of graphic design." This notable issue, entitled Does it make sense? was edited by Mildred Friedman and published by the Walker Art Center
. "She re-imagined the magazine as a poster that folded out to almost three-by-six feet. It contained a life-size, MacVision-generated image of her outstretched naked body adorned with symbolic images and text— a provocative gesture which emphatically countered the objective, rational and masculine tendencies of modernist design. Ever since, Greiman has continued to pioneer new technologies and to challenge prevailing attitudes toward graphic design. One of her most recent laboratories for experimentation is Miracle Manor, a desert spa retreat that she co-owns with (her husband) architect Michael Rotondi, and which amply showcases her talent for applying texture, color and materials to 3-dimensional space as well as her sensitivity to a building's potential to resonate with its natural landscape."
In 1995, the U.S. Postage Service launched a stamp designed by Greiman to commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
(Women's Voting Rights). In 2006, the Pasadena Museum of California Art mounted a one-woman show of her digital photography entitled: Drive-by Shooting (www.drive-byshooting.com). She was also recently in the group show at Centre Georges Pompidou
in Paris, in a major exhibition 'Elle@Centre Pompidou.' That exhibition was self-promoted as one, where "for the first time in the world, a museum will be displaying the feminine side of its own collections.""In 2007, Greiman completed her largest single work to date: a public art mural, Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice, that spans 7 stories of two building facades marking the entrance to the Wilshire Vermont Metro Station in Los Angeles."
April is a recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
Gold Medal for lifetime achievement. She has received 3 honorary doctorates: Kansas City Art Institute
(2001); Lesley University
, The Art Institute of Boston
(2002); Academy of Art University
(2003).
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
. "Recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool, Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers
Jayme Odgers
Jayme Odgers is an artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his new wave design and experimental collage photography of the 1980s.Jayme Odgers graduated from Los Angeles’ Art Center College of Design with a Bachelors Degree in Art 1962....
, with establishing the ‘New Wave’ design style in the US during the late 70s and early 80s."
Presently, she heads Los Angeles-based design consultancy Made in Space. "An insistent innovator, April Greiman works at the border zone of the discipline labeled graphic design, at the intersections of video, computer graphics, architecture and environment. She's interested in altering our perceptions of the relationship between two- and three-dimensional space. On the printed page she removes all the coordinates that are normally used to locate the viewer and instead launches the viewer headlong into deep space and saturated color. With buildings, she renders solid walls diaphanous through her application of video imagery in oil paint."
Greiman first studied graphic design in her undergraduate education at the Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
, from 1966-1970. Her work further evolved from her 1970-1971 graduate education at the Allgemeine Künstgewerberschule Basel, now known as the Basel School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung Basel
Schule für Gestaltung Basel
Switzerland's Schule für Gestaltung Basel at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule and its students have influenced the international graphic design community since it opened in 1968. Its tradition was shaped by influential personalities such as Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder, Kurt Hauert and Wolfgang Weingart...
) in Basel, Switzerland. As a student of Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann is a Swiss graphic designer. Hofmann followed Emil Ruder as head of the graphic design department at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel and was instrumental in developing the graphic design style known as the Swiss Style...
and Wolfgang Weingart
Wolfgang Weingart
Wolfgang Weingart is an internationally known graphic designer and typographer. His work is categorized as Swiss typography and he is credited as "the father" of New Wave or Swiss Punk typography....
, Greiman was not only influenced by the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, but also by Weingart's introduction to the style later to become known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on the Modernist heritage. "The Basel school's faculty and graduates began to come to the U.S. in the mid 1960s, with a real impact realized in the early 1970s when young American graphic designers 'in the know' began to migrate to Basel for postgraduate training in graphic design. By the mid 1970s some of this complexity began to embellish basic American "Swiss" graphic design in the form of bars and rules and playful mixing of type sizes, weights and faces in an essentially formalist agenda."
Greiman moved to Los Angeles in 1976, establishing the multi-disciplinary practice which has survived to this day in its current incarnation and name as Made in Space. Proceeding the mid-80s, designers avidly avoided computers and digitalization, viewing them as challenges to the crispness of the International Style. However, Greiman did not feel that this should be a limitation; rather, she exploited pixelation
Pixelation
In computer graphics, pixelation is an effect caused by displaying a bitmap or a section of a bitmap at such a large size that individual pixels, small single-colored square display elements that comprise the bitmap, are visible to the eye...
and other "errors" in digitization as part of digital art.
She has long taught, and continues to do so to this day - currently, at the Academy of Art University, Woodbury University, and The Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc). In 1982 April Greiman became head of the design department at the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
. "In 1984 she lobbied successfully to change the department name to Visual Communications, feeling that the term “graphic design” would prove too limiting to future designers. In that year, with her business booming, she decided to switch gears and become a student rather than an educator, to study the effect of technology on her own work. She returned to full-time practice and acquired her first Macintosh." She was later to take the Grand Prize in Mac World's First Macintosh Masters in Art Competition.
"An early adopter of the Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer, in 1986 Greiman used its rudimentary capabilities to create an issue of the journal Design Quarterly that has since become one of the key staging posts in the evolution of graphic design." This notable issue, entitled Does it make sense? was edited by Mildred Friedman and published by the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
. "She re-imagined the magazine as a poster that folded out to almost three-by-six feet. It contained a life-size, MacVision-generated image of her outstretched naked body adorned with symbolic images and text— a provocative gesture which emphatically countered the objective, rational and masculine tendencies of modernist design. Ever since, Greiman has continued to pioneer new technologies and to challenge prevailing attitudes toward graphic design. One of her most recent laboratories for experimentation is Miracle Manor, a desert spa retreat that she co-owns with (her husband) architect Michael Rotondi, and which amply showcases her talent for applying texture, color and materials to 3-dimensional space as well as her sensitivity to a building's potential to resonate with its natural landscape."
In 1995, the U.S. Postage Service launched a stamp designed by Greiman to commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
(Women's Voting Rights). In 2006, the Pasadena Museum of California Art mounted a one-woman show of her digital photography entitled: Drive-by Shooting (www.drive-byshooting.com). She was also recently in the group show at Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais...
in Paris, in a major exhibition 'Elle@Centre Pompidou.' That exhibition was self-promoted as one, where "for the first time in the world, a museum will be displaying the feminine side of its own collections.""In 2007, Greiman completed her largest single work to date: a public art mural, Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice, that spans 7 stories of two building facades marking the entrance to the Wilshire Vermont Metro Station in Los Angeles."
April is a recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
American Institute of Graphic Arts
AIGA is an American professional organization for design. Organized in 1914, AIGA currently has more than 22,000 members throughout 66 chapters and more than 200 student groups nationwide...
Gold Medal for lifetime achievement. She has received 3 honorary doctorates: Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
(2001); Lesley University
Lesley University
Lesley University is a private, coeducational university in Boston, Massachusetts and Cambridge, Massachusetts.The university is a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and New England Collegiate Conference.-History:The...
, The Art Institute of Boston
The Art Institute of Boston
The Art Institute of Boston is a private, not-for-profit art school in Boston, Massachusetts, and a part of Lesley University. Undergraduate degree programs include animation, design, fine arts, illustration, and photography. Graduate degree programs focus on fine arts and photography, with an art...
(2002); Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
(2003).