APRIL GREIMAN

SAIC Introduction to Graphic Design

Summer 2017Lucy J. Nicholls

Contents 1. Life

2. Work

3. Critique

4. Recognition

SAIC | Introduction to Graphic Design SUMMER 2017 | Lucy J. Nicholls

Life “A Trans-Media Artist”

• Born 10 September, 1948 in New York City

• Moved to Los Angeles in 1976

• Director of a design consultancy, Made in Space, based in Los Angeles

• 1982 – Head of the design department at the California Institute of the Arts (lobbied to change the dept. name to “Visual Communications:”

• Currently teaches at Woodbury University, School of Architecture and the Southern California Institute of Architecture

• She is considered one of the first designers to have embraced computer technology

• Undergraduate: Kansas City Art Institute, from 1966–1970

• Postgraduate: Basel School of Design, from 1970–1971

• A student of Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart

Greiman contributed to the design of

the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics

Work• Greiman’s art combines her Swiss design training with West Coast postmodernism.

She is credited introducing “New Wave” Design to the U.S.

– New Wave design was influenced by Punk and postmodern language theory

• 1970sOther designers were afraid of digitalization and that the advancement in

computer technology would comprise the International Style

• 1984The Macintosh was making an unsteady entry into the design market. A

visionary, April Greiman, recognized the vast potential of this new medium

• Greiman bought her first Macintosh and later received the Grand Prize in Mac

World’s First Macintosh Masters in Art Competition

• 1986 she published an issue for a magazine, notable for its development of graphic

design, Design Quarterly. The Walker Art Center published her edition, titled Does it

Make Sense

• 1995To commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution (Women’s Voting Rights), the U.S. Postal Service commissioned Greiman

to design the stamp for the occasion,

• 2006 A one-woman show of her digital photography, entitled Drive-by Shooting,

was held by the Pasadena Museum of California Art

• 2007 she presented her largest ever designed work, a public mural spanning seven

stories of two building facades, named Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice

• She also participated in a major exhibition Elle@Centre Pompidou, held at Centre

Georges Pompidou in Paris

A Pioneer of Digital

Communications Design

An Evolution away from the Swiss

Typographic Style

• The 1950s saw the rise of the Swiss Style also called the International Typographic Style, given its emphasis on typography. The Swiss style focused on the grid system to provide order and structure to a design. It was also known for sans-serif typefaces, primarily the utilitarian Helvetica which was introduced in 1957

• It was not until the 1970’s did the computer enter into the graphic design businesses

• Then came the New Wave which desired change!

• Those who aligned with it rejected the strict grid-based design of the Swiss and international typographic style

• New Wave design’s use of inconsistent letterspacing, varying type weights within single words and type set at unusual angles broke traditional rules and created a new interpretation of typography and graphic design

Examples of the

Swiss Typographic Style

Critique • Her style includes layering type to make it look like it

is floating in space, using geometric shapes,

exaggerated letter spacing and eccentric

colors

• She creates a sense of depth by combining graphic

elements with photography, which is how she came to

work with Jayme Odgers, utilizing Macintosh

technology

Grieman’s 1987 life-sized centerfold for Minneapolis Walker Art Center’s Design Quarterly has become an icon of the digital era

Critique (Cont’d)

• During the 1970s, she rejected the belief among many

contemporary designers that computers and

digitalization would compromise the International

Style; instead, she exploited pixelation and other

digitization “errors” as integral parts of digital art

Critique (Cont’d)

Critique (Cont’d)

April Greiman is married to Michael Rotondi, an Architect. They made frequent trips to a 50’s retro motel perched on a hill in a Palm Springs area desert town known for its hot springs. Turns out April and her husband were onto something almost 30 years ago — the fast pace of technology needed to be balanced by extreme quiet and big open spaces — found in a polar opposite environment (with no TVs or phones). The couple eventually purchased the motel, Miracle Manor, after its proprietor passed away and brought their own vision of a B&B retreat destination to life.

April Greiman was heavily influenced and inspired by the dessert landscape. Soon after she settled in Los Angeles, a friend offered to take her to the desert. “Death Valley?” she said. “Sounds pretty bleak.” He dragged her along anyway, and within hours she found herself seduced by the landscape. “The desert is its own educational vehicle,” she says.

“While most processes occur at an invisible or microscopic level, the desert reveals its evolution in its very existence. I felt as if, for the first time, my eyes were wide open to the process of evolution, to growth, to change.”

Critique (Cont’d)

Recognition April Greiman is seen as one of the "ultimate risk-takers" for

her unorthodox and progressive approach to design by

embracing new technologies…

• Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the

Chrysler Award for Innovation

• American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal for

lifetime achievement

• She has received 4 honorary doctorates: Kansas City

Art Institute (2001);[4] Lesley University, The Art

Institute of Boston (2002);[4] Academy of Art

University (2003,) Art Center College of Design (2012.)

Thank you

Lucy J. Nicholls

LECTURE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O_L6cKCm3k