n a n m a i m e i r e G r G l i l r i p r A Ap n r n e r d e o d m o t m s t o s p o p d n d a an e r e u r t u c t e c t e i t h i c h r c a r a

by Andrea Fineman

Though

the notion of postmodernism began in architecture theory, the style spread quickly throughout the world of arts and letters, finding one of its earliest embodiments in the field of graphic design with April Greiman. Greimans work, characterized by the use of 3D graphics, non-orthogonal angles, and digital distortion proved to be some of the most influential of the 1980s and 1990s. Her interest in the complete physical experience and of three-dimensional forms makes her oeuvre uniquely well suited to comparison with contemporary

in postmodern architecture. Indeed, Greiman collaborated with architecture firms on several projects, where her graphics were expressed in small architectural features such as balustrades and decoration on interior walls. Greimans position as a postmodern graphic designer rather than architect makes her work very unique from an architectural point of view, as is characterized by a graphic design interpretation of what it means to be postmodern, rather than an architectural one. In any discussion of postmodern art or literature, its important to define the term. While debates continue within various disciplines regarding what characterized postmodernism or even whether postmodernism should be considered its own movement (as opposed to a phase of modernism or late modernism), a few concrete characteristics can be settled upon for each discipline. In architecture, postmodernism is characterized by the use of forms and ornament drawn from historical periods and employed for an ironic or jokey effect. The use of non-orthogonal angles and unusual color (any color being quite a contrast to the style of modernist architecture) are also common in postmodern architectural designs. The use of non-orthogonal angles and wild colors appears also in postmodern graphic design, along with collage, fractured typography or different shapes and sizes that dont match, and (quite prominently in Greimans work) distortion or errors. Throughout the arts, postmodernism is characterized conceptually by ambiguity, subjectivity, and self-referentiality. Greiman began her career with an attempt to become a fine artist, and after a renowned career as a graphic designer, has returned to the fine arts as well as architecture in the past ten years. For the past several years, Greiman has taught at two

architecture schools in Los Angeles, and been the subject of gallery and museum shows of her work in the fine arts, from video to sculpture to two-dimensional works. Born in 1948, Greiman grew up in New York City, and applied to the fine arts program at Rhode Island School of Design. Upon being rejected, she was encouraged to apply to the graphic design program at Kansas City Art Institute, where she studied under several Swiss modernists including the influential graphic designer Inge Druckrey. The prevalence of Swiss modern designs in Greimans undergrad education would have mirrored the prevalence of modernist architecture in America at that time. The modernist style in both fields of design is characterized by strict adherence to an uncluttered grid, with clean lines and few organic forms. Unnecessary ornament is disdained by modernist architects and devotees of the Swiss modern style of graphic.

Does it m sense?
After college, Greiman went straight to the source, for a graduate degree at the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland. (It was the school where many of her undergraduate professors had studied.) In Switzerland, Greiman gained a deeper knowledge of modernism, but was also exposed to the New Wave style developed by her professor, Wolfgang Weingart. An AIGA profile of Greiman describes Weingarts New Wave style as a more intuitive, eclectic departure from the stark organization and neutral objectivity of the grid that sent shock waves through the design community. 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. Within a decade, the impact of Weingart and the students who studied with him was evident everywhere: the aesthetic had

Identity Spots for Lifetime Television, 1987

been widely co-opted and imitated, with the original intent long forgotten or known to only a few. Shortly after returning to the United States, Greiman moved to Los Angeles, a city that wasnt at the time known for its design scene. Greiman quickly fell in love with the area, finding great inspiration in the landscapes of Death Valley and the arid regions to the east of L.A. Images of the desert figure into Greimans work repeatedly over the years. To her, the desert represents a place of constant change, where the evolution of the deserts forms are plainly visible on the surface of the sand dunes and geological formations.

make
Greimans move to L.A. also introduced her to the video equipment that would influence the trajectory of her oeuvre completely. While working at the California Institute of the Arts, Greiman had access to state of the art video cameras and digital production equipment. Pixellation, screen blurs, and other digital errors and unexpected phenomena are the hallmark of her work. Whereas the Swiss modernists sought to achieve perfection with straight lines, right angles, and clean composition, Greiman used the spontaneous errors made by the video equipment as features in her designs. As new equipment came onto the market, Greiman liked to test it out to see what kinds of unexpected visuals she could create by using the equipment in a way different from what it was intended to do. Even before encountering the video equipment at CalArts, Greiman used digital errors as a theme in her work, experimenting with pushing the boundaries of digital equipment before the rise of the personal computer. A 1978 cover for the magazine Art Direction that she designed used textures created by photocopying a black and white dot pattern on a color Xerox machine until the copies took on a rainbow look due to the way the copy machine refracted light off the original patterns. In a similar vein, the postmodern architects of the same era designed mistaken-looking forms into their buildings, such as columns leading to nowhere, or broken rooflines made possible by building technology not available a century before. However, though 3D modeling software has become integral to the practice of architecture, few architects design buildings incorporating errors encountered in that software. One of Greimans early achievements in combining computer graphics with traditional design methods was a pull-out poster she made for a 1986 issue of the journal Design Quarterly. This issue was about Greimans work, and also was designed and laid out by Greiman in its entirety. The poster she included measured three by six feet, with a large digitized photograph of Greimans body, layers of images and text, and images drawn from video. At the time, working with digital graphics, especially on a large scale, was a very time-consuming process because of the processor speed. Greiman would print the files as she was leaving the office in the evening, and they would just be finishing up as she arrived the next morning. The poster embodies the postmodern movement in graphic design. The self-interrogating nature of the text is a feature found across genres of postmodernismthat is, the idea that art should call attention to itself as art, and interrogate its own value. Greiman has written that she intended the question Does it make sense? to be about her work and the postmodern style with which she designed the magazine issue. Though many architects and architectural historians may argue that egotism has been a common feature of architects over the centuries, only in the postmodern era would you find something like Charles Moores Piazza dItalia, an outdoor plaza of fountains and columns where carved faces of Charles Moores own head jut out from walls like gargoyles. The forms of modern architecture, while lessake sense?, force the viewer to wonder whether the visual vocabulary of western architecture (columns, pediments, slanted roofs, windows of uniform shape and size) makes sense.

Poster, 1987
Greimans desire to create a full mind-body experience, and her love of different media from 2D to motion graphics to sculpture makes her work a natural fit for architectural collaborators. Greiman has created murals, public art sculptures, and visual identity work that has been used to shape the built environmentfor instance, a brand identity design for the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1989 was developed not only for stationery but also for signage and placement on the campus. Some filler text here, as allowed. More filler text here as allowed; needed for paragraph. Later, Greiman took on a major architectural project with the design for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, where Greiman designed the exterior cladding (tile) of the building as well as the interior of the building, from textile patternschnology not available a century before. However, though 3D modeling softw to wall decorations and the shapes of features such as railings. The brightly colored tile exterior, though highly gridded due to the use of thousands of square tiles of the same size, would not have been possible in an era of strict modernism. Todays viewer might see Greimans work as dated; the postmodern features may 1980s. However, it is a testament to Greimans influential body of work that her favorite forms have been seem to be part of the visual vocabulary of 1980s and 90s America.