April Greiman By Colt Falewitch
April Greiman is an artist and graphic designer. She is known for her unique style which features geometric shapes, gradients, and vibrant colors. From a young age, Greiman was exposed to creativity. She grew up in New York City which always had a robust art and design scene. Both of her parents were creative people, so they pushed creativity on her as well. Greiman knew from the young age that it is important to think critically about things. This passion for creativity is what pushed April Greiman’s career. After high school, April Greiman decided to pursue a formal education in art at Rhode Island School of Design. She could not draw very well so this stopped her from being accepted into the university, however she discovered an alternate route. The dean of admissions at Rhode Island School of Design recognized the fact that her portfolio had a strong aesthetic to it. He was impressed by her design skills, so he suggested to her that she apply at the Kansas City Art Institute for graphic design. She was pretty blind to the world of graphic design at this point, but she took his advice and was accepted into the program at KCAI. In college, she was exposed to many artists who had been educated through the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Once she completed college she began a new education at the Basel School of Design, where she received her MFA. Eventually she moved back to New York City to work as a graphic designer. After she gained some experience in New York she began to get bored with the scene. The NYC design community was extremely traditional at the time, and Greiman wanted something new and fresh. On the west coast, the design scene was young. There had not been much of a development of a community in Los Angeles, which made it perfect for Greiman. She saw this impressionable community as an opportunity to start something new. In 1976 she decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue this dream. April Greiman arrived in Los Angeles and quickly found inspiration through the desert. She had an experience with one of her friends in the
desert that greatly impacted the evolution of her work. She began to think of ways to alter the two dimensional space of the page. In addition, she started thinking of the page as a continuum. This is evident in her work, where she often depicts floating shapes. Some of the pieces feel like you could reach your hand into them. Greiman was one of the first designers to begin using the computer as a tool for design. She recognized the potential of computers, whereas most people were afraid to use them because they were worried it would compromise the quality of their work. Greiman made a name for herself and was invited to work at CalArts as the head of the design department. As an employee of CalArts, Greiman had access to more computers which gave her the opportunity to further push the limits of computers in graphic design. One of April Greiman’s most notable works was created as a magazine. She was invited to be the editor of Design Quarterly issue #133. She saw this as an opportunity to showcase her design work. In addition this piece, titled Does it make sense?, encouraged the digital transformation of design. The magazine featured a fold-out 3 foot by 6 foot poster, rather than pages with articles and images to flip through.
Does it make sense? (inside)
Another thing that Greiman was known for were the covers that she created for WET maga zine. This was a magazine that was centered on the topic of “gourmet bathing”, although it fea tured many different articles on things ranging from how to dress for the apocalypse to how to cook fish in the microwave. The magazine was meant to be extremely absurd in content, but also have a strong design sense and aesthetic appeal. This work appears different than the work she cre- ated for Design Quarterly, but they both featured a digital approach on graphic design. To help commemorate the 19th amend ment, which gave women the right to vote, the U.S. Postal Service commissioned April Greiman to design a stamp. The stamp, which was released in 1995, features her signature style with different sized text, and overlayed images. It also depicts words such as “equality” and “freedom.”v
April Greiman used her most important jobs as opportunities to showcase her digital work. Some of the projects that she worked on, such as the stamp for the U.S Postal Service and Design Quarterly issue #133, helped her gain lots of exposure. Because of this, people saw digital work done well for one of the first times. She pushed the use of computers into the world of design and will always be remembered as a pioneer in the industry of graphic design.
Bibliograpy “April Greiman.” Design Lecture Series, designlectur.es/events/april-greiman/. “Supergraphics and Computer Art: Deborah Sussman and April Greiman in L.A.” Print Magazine, 9 Apr. 2013, www.printmag.com/illustration/supergraphics-and-computer-art-deborah-sussmanand-april-greiman-in-l-a/. Biography by AIGA. “April Greiman.” AIGA | the Professional Association for Design, www.aiga.org/ medal ist-aprilgreiman.In-text Citation