In the 1980s the computer hit the consumer market on a variety of different levels. At the time the computer was mainly seen as a tool for technology based industries, but April Greiman took advantage of its potential as a new visual medium and helped usher in the digital era of design as she pushed the boundaries of design.
April Greiman was born on March 22, 1948 in New York City in a typical American family. Her father was one of the first computer programmers of the time. April Greiman began studying graphic design during her university days at the Kansas City Art Institute during 1966 and 1970. She decided to explore the world and went to Europe where she entered to study at the Basel School of Design, Switzerland until 1971. There she was a student of Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart where she was influenced by the International Style and the introduction to the style later known as New Wave.
Not limited to the basics of graphic design she is also an accomplished photographer and works in a variety of mediums. She finds the title graphic designer too limiting and prefers to call herself a trans-media artist.
Her work has inspired designers to develop the computer as a tool of design and to be curious and searching in their design approach.
Some of April Greiman’s known work includes cover's for WET Magazine that she collaborated with Jayme Odgers on. The magazine covers plays a lot with layering. It usually has a dominate photo in the middle, but there are a lot of different things going on the magazine cover. There is usually not much text beside the WET logo, but lots of imagery and patterns. The colours range from cover to cover but they all share the factor that they have the same tone and are shades of the primary colours.
Another piece is a Cal Arts poster/mailer project Greiman made again with Jayme Odgers. This poster like many of her others are very busy. It is very engaging, because it has images bleeding off the page such as the hand at the bottom. It is made to seem as a photograph and collages by overlapping, but all of these odd things happening inside of the poster that is not realistic. There are some people within it, things floating, a giant pencil, and an enlarged face. As a viewer you want to sit down and stare at this piece to try and figure out the rhythm of the image.
April Greimans' transmedia projects, innovative ideas and projects, and hybrid-based approach, have been influential worldwide over the last 30 years. Her explorations of image, word and colour as objects in time and space are grounded in her singular fusion of art and technology.
Until Next Time, Live and Laugh,
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