thinking about perception. i take perception to mean not only the visual, from a fixed point, but also the connection of the body, the breath,

april greiman

“thinking about

percep-tion. i take perception

to mean not only the

vi-sual, from a fixed point,

but also the connection

of the body, the breath,

and of multiple per

-spectives to the symbols around

us, as well as their connection to

the space of the field where the

relationship activated...”

“if there was a very concrete symbol in a dream, i’d sketch it, or i’d write down a word which

spoke the loudest. if the symbology was so strong that i’d be in that dream for a couple of weeks, then i’d write the entire dream down so that i would always remember it...”

background

april greiman, born and raised in

metropolitan new york city in 1948,

is a rare individual in the world of graphic design. she’s someone who sets her own goals and so aspects

of greiman’s practice have little to

do proper definitions of graphic de -sign. rather, most of which comes

from her research and personal agenda. instead of following hard-and fast rules or predictable solu -tions, what’s more valuable is the

duality, diversity, abstraction, ex

-perimentation, and intuition. grei

-man attained her bachelor of fine arts at kansas city art institute and later enrolled in basel design school in switzerland in 1970. while every

-one was hesitant toward the use of

computers, greiman saw the

com-puter as “the real stroke of genius”, a tool that provided infinite choice, changes, and possibilities. greiman later moved to los angeles in 1976

“my personal research is about what, in my heart,

i feel it is important to explore and discover...”

“i’ll always be designing. it’s not

what i do, it’s who i am...”

“basel was completely non-theoretical, a profound

educaiton in the perceptual. it was what i call my first

experience of zen, because most of the teachers didn’t

speak english, they taught in silence and i was teach

-ing myself, which was a really invaluable experience...”

“you don’t have to give up your pencil when you

switch to computer design…the mac’s just

another pencil...”

and was introduced to Edith Sull

-wold who directed greiman toward research materials and ways to learn mroe about color, myth, and

symbol. “that research became a part of my waking consciousness

and daily agenda.” the reason for such emphasis is that, when used appropriately, color, myth, and sym

-bol add meaning and content to

visual communication. greiman’s

definiton of design is all-inclusive

- “all form is is content. so are

emo-tion, texture, words, symbols, color, and technology”.

additional works

- shaping the future of healthcare - inference corporation

- pacific design center/westweek

- pikes peak

- la county museum of art - la olympics committee

- pc world magazine

- limbex and web compass

- computer visualizations

- lux and us west

- fresco restaurant

- cal state student union - digital campfires - japan pga gold club

- cover for 1988 aiga annual

studio identity

vitra: workspirit & bellini lifetime television

sci-arc

walker art center nicola design quarterly #133 mak center us postal serivce miracle manor wet magazine cerritos center

dorland mtn arts colony carlson-reges residence

vertigo

the china club

description

a multitude of media - from printed business cards to websites.

moma

urban revisions

california institute of arts tse cashmere

sci-arc

april greiman has worked on identity and publishing projects at sci-arc in la since 1989. “my first commission at sci-arc was to design the identity.

from then on i was responisble for

the majority of graphic material pro

cerritos center

“the cerritos center for the performing arts in california was my first large-scale ‘environmental’ project. the architect barton myers needed some

-one who could not only work with four-inch square ceramic tiles, but also produce a graphic identity and stationery system. he trusted me enough to make the leap from two to three dimensions.”

design quarterly #133:

“does it make sense?”

“design quarterly is a publication of

the walker art center in minneapolis,

directed to the international design

community. each issue takes on a single topic, or occasionally

repre-sents the work of a single designer. mickey friedman offered me an is

-sue of my own to see what i woulde do. my idea for the issue was to do it as a 2’ x 6’ poster that folds down to fit in a sleeve the size of a regular

copy of the magazine. the poster

was to be a personal experiment in which oen side was a life-size col

-lage created entirely on the mac, and the other side carried a variety of related text and video images.”

analysis/conclusions

april greiman is internationally recognized as one of the world’s most innovative and influential designers. today, she brings a unique approach that blends technology and science with symbol and myth, words and images with texture and space. her expertise lies in color-surfac

-es-materials consulting, trans-media identity, as well as branding projects.

“I’ve always been a science-friendly person, but also

fascinated with magic. with technology today we can

float ideas, text, and images in time and space.”

“...symbols – i include letters here – are not only stand-ins for a concept, or elements in a

whole, but things in themselves. for instance, ‘O’ is not only a letter, but also something

which one can step into, a void, a condition in space that relates to the body; ‘O’ is also

related to the breath – when spoken, it hollows the throat, hangs, then evaporates in the

air. different letters and sounds are directly connected to various organ functions in the hu

-man body. likewise, a word can be an image, not merely appended to an ‘image’ to explain

it. a sheet of paper isn’t merely a neutral receiver of symbols, but a field or space that is tra

-versed. the eye walks, jumps, journeys through, inside and outside of it. it is where relation

references

Liz Farrelly. 1998. April Greiman: Floating Ideas into Time and Space. New York:

Watson-Guptill Publications

April Greiman. 1990. Hybrid Imagery: The fusion of technology and graphic design. New York. Watson-Guptill Publications

AIGA. 1998. April Greiman: You can’t fake the Cha-Cha. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentID=2263

(accessed 05/23/06)

Erfert Neilson. April Greiman: Riding A New Wave. http://www.mkgraphic.com/ greiman. html (accessed 05/23/06)