from new york to L.A. via basel

After failing to get into art school, April Greiman applied and was accepted at the Kansas City Art Institute. There she was introduced to Modernist principles, which became her first serious design influence and inevitably led her to their mecca, the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. In addition to her very rigorous academic training there, Greiman was also exposed to New Wave experiments in Wolfgang Weingart’s studio—and eventually toward the looming gap that she would help fill by her hybridization of typography and imagery.

the people who are designing photoshop or after effects are not the ones designing with it. they are not solving the kinds of problems we are. so you have to wade through and get stuck in somebody else’s quicksand of engineering and technology. —april greiman

April Greiman “blur-mode” self-portrait. A blurry image of an artist with red hear, looking sideways

April Greiman “blur-mode” self-portrait, 2009.

floating in space

After returning from Europe, April Greiman settled in Los Angeles, where she worked as a freelancer and developed her style: the signature layering of type, exaggerated spacing, random collages and geometric shapes. This would eventually cease to be a mere echo of Weingart’s Swiss Punk and become her own contribution to West Coast postmodernism.

 

Advertisement for Di-Zin opening exhibition. Words Di-Zin on a black background
Poster for Pacific design center. Words Your Turn, My Turn and a number 1983

Advertisement for Di-Zin opening exhibition, 1987.

The modern poster for MOMA with the words The Modern Poster

Poster for Pacific design center, 1983. Photo courtesy of Cooper Hewitt.

Identity and stationery system for Coop Himmelblau. Black letter O and a thick red line, animated

Identity and stationery system for Coop Himmelblau, 1990.

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