Transformative Type: A New Wave of Design with April Greiman

October 23- December 28, 2018 Ner man Museum of C

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Transformative Type: A New Wave of Design with April Greiman

Exhibit: October 23rd through December 28th in the Kansas Focus Gallery Lecture: October 23rd at 7:00pm in the Hudson Auditorium Followed by a welcome reception in the Capitol Federal Conference Center

http.commons.wikimedia.org

Greiman’s book Hybrid Imagery, published in 1990. Photo from www.amazon.com

In Design, typography is as much a form of visual language as it is a vehicle for literal communication.

The way letters and words interact with other design elements and space surrounding them is equally as important as the words that the type actually forms.

April Greiman and the New Wave

April Greiman, known for her participation in the “New Wave” design movement of the 1980s as well as her continuous work with technology, has a notable awareness of typography as a design element, one which has been obvious in her work from the beginning of her career through the present.

“April Greiman’s approach questions the conventional idea that dualities are opposed pairs.”

In Greiman’s book Hybrid Imagery, coauthor Eric Martin writes: “April Greiman’s approach questions the conventional idea that dualities are opposed pairs.

Instead, she suggests that they are interdependent possibilities at play in a common field” (Greiman 13). Thus, any typography present in a design functions to strengthen the design itself, rather than merely existing to explain the rest of the visual composition.

Education and Influences

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Greiman studied Graphic Design at the Kansas City Art Institute, and continued her studies at the Basel Design School upon finishing her BFA. Her studies at Basel would greatly influence her approach to design and typography (www.aiga.org).

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During her time at Basel, Greiman met and studied with Wolfgang Weingart, who was experimenting with type. To quote AIGA.org, “His typographical experiments were less reflective of the Modernist heritage and more representative of a changing, post-industrial society […] Wide letterspacing, changing type weights or styles within a single word, and the use of type set on an angle were explored, not as mere stylistic indulgences but in an effort to expand typographic communication more meaningfully.”

As Weingart’s student and throughout her career. Greiman was inspired to experiment with type in its relation to space and dimension, rather than letting it simply exist to explain the design it accompanied.

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Design and Technology Greiman is known for being one of the first designers to adopt the computer as a creative tool.

The computer, then used mostly for tech purposes and viewed by many people as a science fiction prop, was frowned upon by a design community deeply entrenched in traditional analog methods of production. Greiman, however, recognized the potential of the new technology as a vehicle for design.

“Digital technology is entering a period in which it is not only reinventing print technology but is creating wholly new formats which combine sound, motion, and interactivity,” writes Eric Martin in Hybrid Imagery.

“These new digital hybrids will become the platform for the designers of tomorrow” (Greiman 13).

“Does It Make Sense?”

www.designindaba.com

This 3’x 6’ poster, titled “Does It Make Sense?,” is one of Greiman’s most well-known creations. It simultaneously emulates a scientific diagram of the human body while alluding to the more conceptual parts of human life with words like “play,” “dream,” “sleep in nothingness,” and a second image of Greiman’s face which is labeled “the spiritual double.”

As is consistent with Greiman’s work, the type is as much a part of the design as the images.

The poster was created in multiple layers, each one printed individually before being tiled and shot with film for the final product.

Cover for an issue of Wet Magazine, published in 1979. Photo from www.walkerart.org

“In Greiman’s work, type floats and images merge and overlap, creating an anarchic, dreamlike style which is immersive and confrontational.”

-Grace Fussell

Wayfinding for Orange County Great Park, Irvine, CA. Photo from http://linespace.com/portfolio

“O is not only a letter, but also something which one can step into; a condition in space that relates to the body [‌] A word can be an image, not nearly appended to an image to explain it.â€? -April Greiman and Michael Rotondi

Greiman’s murals at the Wilshire Vermont Subway Station, Los Angeles. www.coearchitecture.com

What April is Doing Today Currently, April Greiman lives and works in Los Angeles. She considers the title of graphic designer to be too limiting, and instead refers to herself as a trans-media artist.

Greiman runs a studio called Made in Space, and often collaborates with her husband, architect Michael Rotondi. Together they integrate design and typography directly into spaces in which people work and live.

Resources “April Greiman.” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18041839/.

Biography by AIGA. “Ap ril Greiman.” AIGA | the Professional Association for Design, 1998, www.aiga.org/medalistaprilgreiman.

Architect igner April Greiman+ l Rotondi 1-25-2016.” Des hae Mic and n ima Gre “Design Lecture - April Sept. 2018.

School of Architecture. with Tulane University on rati abo coll i ond Michael Rot

Fussell, Grace. “The Influence of Women on Graphic Design Over the Last 100 Years.” Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+, 8 Mar. 2018, design. tutsplus.com/articles/the-influence-of-women-on-graphic-design-over-the-last-100-years--cms-30617.

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an in L.A.” Print and April Greim Deborah Sussman t: Ar r ute mp Co borahsussmanpergraphics and -computer-art-de Head, Jeffrey. “Su pergraphics-and /su on ati str illu ag.com/ 2013, www.printm GreiMagazine, 9 Apr. and April Sussman ah .

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“Orange County Great Park.”

Madeinspace, 2018, ww w.madeinspace.la/ora nge-cou

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