Alyssa Baldridge GD1 Fall 2014
According to Greiman, the most important lesson she learned from her mom came from her mom’s often repeated saying,
“April, you can't fake the cha-cha.� Which taught her at an early age, that integrity and immersion were critical elements in one's art.
Dec
ide
d t o g o t d t o a o R n A rt hod Sch e I ool s lan Cou . She ldn d S ’t cho Pus dra was r hed ol e w jec Kan b of t o o a ted ots sas Des p . ply ... to Cit ign sav y A to Too . e r the t I k h h e r l eve nst g i ife n s s ad itu raphi . vic te ure c des by how e an ign the d g to o D t a ean progr def c ine am ce of at Adm gra pted iss phi eve ion c d n t s. esi hou gn. gh she was n’t App
lie
At KCAI, Grieman was introduced to Modernism design by her professors who had all studied at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Inspired by them, she went to Basel for graduate school where she was a student of designers like Armin Hoffman and Wolfgang Weingart in the early 1970’s. At Basel she explored the International Style in depth, as well as Weingart’s personal experiments in developing aesthetics that were more representative of a changing post-industrial style. He introduced her to what is now called the “New Wave” style.
Wide letterspacing, changing type weights or styles within a single word, and the use of type set on an angle in an effort to expand typographic communication more meaningfully.
Graduated and was a designer in NYC for a time in the mid-1970s. Got bored and decided to head out west where design practices weren’t as established. Wanted to explore new paradigms in communications design.
In her first job after moving to LA, Greiman hired Jayme Odgers (previous assistant to Paul Rand) to shoot a series of photographs which lead to two experiences that greatly influenced the direction that her life took—he introduced her to the desert, “a journey that forever influence her way of thinking and being” and shortly after, formed a creative partnership that was to lasted four years and produced some highly visible work. -1979, poster for CA Institute of the Arts -1980, China Club and Lounge advertisements -1984, poster for the Olympics.
Became director of the CalArts graphic design program in 1982, where she gained access to state-of-the-art video and digitizing equipment. Changed the department name to Visual Communications, felt that the term “graphic design” would be too limiting to future designers. Made a poster for Ron Rezek titled “Iris Light” that was significant for combining video imagery and New Wave typography with classical design elements. She says, “Instead of looking like a bad photograph, the image was gestural. It looked like a painting; it captured the spirit of light.”
The #133 issue of Design Quarterly focused on Greiman and they invted her to design it. She entitled it, “Does it Make Sense?” Which she concluded, “It makes sense if you give it sense.” Reformatted the magazine as a poster that folded out to almost three by six feet. Integrating digitized video images and bitmapped type. Printing was so slow - she’d send the file when she left the studio and it would just be done when she came back in the morning. After the publication many designers started to reconsider the role of the computer in design practice. Greiman’s willingness to ask the question, and to place it at the center of the design community, triggered countless debates about computers, context, and creativity. Recieved a phone call from Massimo Vignelli soon after he saw the poster. “I have just one question,” he said. “When do I get the other side?”
Sources:
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-aprilgreiman/ GD History book http://madeinspace.la/ http://aprilgreiman.com/