April Greiman

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April Greiman (born 1948) is a highly influential contemporary designer. She is recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool starting in 1984 when she bought a new Macintosh and, to a lesser extent, for introducing the New Wave aesthetic to the United States.

[edit] Biography

Her work evolved from her graduate education at Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland. As a student of Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart in the early 1970s, Greiman was not only influenced by the International Style, but also by Weingart’s introduction to the style later to become known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on the Modernist heritage. Greiman is credited, along with early collaborator Jamie Odgers as establishing the New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s.

Prior to the mid-80s, designers shunned computers, viewing them as challenges to the crispness of the International style. However, Greiman did not feel that this should be a limitation, and embracing the physicality of digital work in terms of pixelation, "errors" in digitization, etc.

In 1986, she used Macintosh computers to create a noted issue of Design Quarterly, edited by Mildred Friedman and published by the Walker Art Center, entitled Does it make sense?

Among many other accolades, Greiman is a recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.