Research Paper The major project in this class will be to research a topic in graphic design history in great depth, the topic can be anything from prehistory to present day but must be a unique topic from your classmates. This project is fairly open and you can select to study a designer, technology, or movement. Your goal is to become an expert on the subject matter of your choice, or at least very fluent on the topic. If you choose to pursue a designer consider your approach, will this be someone who is written about frequently in design history? Or someone not considered to be part of the canon? Will you approach their story as a design hero? Or anti-hero? Or neither? Often a unique approach for this assignment is to investigate subjects that are not a part of the graphic design history canon, however resources can be limited for non-canon subjects. In this paper, you must also make a strong connection to your topic’s importance and relevance to the history of graphic design, or argue the opposite. Process 1. Select a topic, must be instructor approved 2. Conduct research and decide on a theme/thesis for your paper 3. Create an annotated bibliography of your resources 4. Create an outline featuring key points for this theme/thesis 5. Write a draft of your paper following the outline 6. Review and revise the draft, we will use peer reviews to help with this 7. Finalize and submit your paper Paper specifications Length 2,000 words minimum Double spaced Times New Roman or Helvetica Must include a bibliography with a minimum of 6 sources (Please note that this is the MINIMUM, expect to use more sources if you want to excel on this assignment & textbooks for the class do not add to the count, though they can be used) No websites/webpages can be used as sources without permission from the instructor, this limitation does not include online resoures accessed from the university library Must include relevant images with captions and a list of figures Use APA guidelines Objectives • Identify and explain the relevance of important cultural and historical events as they relate to graphic design history • Discuss the historical value of graphic design, designers, technology or design movements • Identify and discuss canon and non-canon topics of graphic design history • Practice research and writing a an academic level Submission Guidelines Papers will only be accepted through canvas, you will not be required to turn in a paper copy. Be sure to turn in your paper early because canvas will not accept work after the due date and time. Due Dates Week 6 | W 09.22 – Research Paper Topic/theme/thesis/title Due - Via Canvas* 10 points Week 8 | M 10.04 – Annotated bibliography Due - Via Canvas* 25 points Week 9 | W 10.13 – Outline Due - Via Canvas* 10 points Week 12 | W 11.03 – Rough Draft due - Via Canvas 25 points Week 13 | M 11.08 – Peer Reviews due - Via Canvas 30 points Week 14 | M 11.17 – Paper Due - Via Canvas Week 16 | W 12.01 – NCUR Abstract submission Due - via NCUR website* 100 points 10 points *items are optional assignments, available for additional feedback and points. (Extra Credit assignments) Total points possible 155-210 points
 

April Greiman

April Greiman is a name that comes to mind most of the time when a graphic design topic is mentioned. She is recognized as an influential American graphic designer. Greiman's innovative ideas and mind-blowing transmedia projects have taken the globe by storm, and she remains one of the most relevant figures as far as the graphic design industry is concerned. History records her as one of the first people to view a computer system from a different perspective. She is among the first people to realize the potential of computers and computing systems as tools that could be used to design unique projects and features. She is mostly famous for introducing the ‘New Wave’ design style in the United States of America. Greiman is the current director of Made in Space, a design consultancy whose location is in Los Angeles, California.

Greiman’s Early Life

Greiman was born in New York City on 22^nd March 1948 (Barkai, 2019). She was a daughter of a typical American family. Her father was one of the initial computer programmers during these times.  She attended Kansas City Art Institute for her undergraduate education in graphic design between 1966 and 1970 (Sinfield, 2013). In the early 1970s, Greiman went to Basel, Switzerland, where she studied at Allgemeine Künstgewerberschule Basel, currently known as  Basel School of Design. In this institution, while under the supervision of  Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart, Greiman developed a special interest in the International Style, which she would later term as the 'New Wave.' In 1976, Greiman moved to Los Angeles, where she found Made in Space, a multidisciplinary model of graphic design that extends to her current practice.

Greiman’s success started in the 1970s, a time when designers were afraid that the advancement in technology would comprise the use of the International Style in the field of design and arts (Greiman, 2020). Rather than shying off from the new era of digitization, Greiman embraced the idea, and unlike her contemporaries, she perceived the new technology as a digital tool that would advance her graphic design prowess. She implemented pixelation and other digitization tools as integral segments of her digital art. Ever since the 70s, Greiman has been instrumental in the exploration and the spreading of the idea of integrating technology in the process of design and arts. Due to her fame and influence, in 1981, the California Institute of the Arts designated her as the head of the design department (Sinfield, 2013). While in this capacity, Greiman took time to thoroughly introspect the impacts that technology had on her work.

Introduction to Digital Tools

As a young designer, Greiman had been trained to base all her works on a strict grid system. In the 1980s, this old model of designing and art was getting outdated and the digital era imposed on the designers a reason to learn and adopt new design techniques and models (Barndt, 2014). When the New Wave style was introduced, it brought about a new and intuitive approach as far as the design layout was concerned. The New Wave style introduced a technique of experimenting with image placement coupled with a topography that exceeded the old grid system. It was the New Wave style that brought about the possibility of altering the two-dimensional space of a designing page. With it came the aspect of a three-dimensional style that depicted both space and time. Greiman’s design style has been recognized as one that defies conventional design techniques, as evident in most of her work (Barndt, 2014). Greiman holds the title of one of the very first designers who embraced computer technology and applied it as a tool in the design and art industry. Her innovative ideas, as demonstrated by her work, placed her at the cutting edge of the technology in graphic design.

Before the digital revolution that took place around 1984, after Apple introduced their Macintosh computer, graphic design was simply done manually (Barkai, 2019). It was a hand-done and photomechanical process. History records that during the late 1970s and the early 1980s, while other designers feared the digitization idea, Greiman saw beyond the posed threats and took advantage of the new opportunities that the new technology brought about to advance in her graphics design career. She engaged herself in rigorous experimentation with the new technology. Her curiosity and continuous experimentation soon paid off when he finally liberated herself from the burden of the traditional approach of designing. By integrating new technology in her design work, she grew in such a way that her work soon involved distinctive and multidisciplinary aesthetics. Her new and unique work not only placed her name among the leading voices for the New Wave designing style but also marked the turning point of the American graphic design industry.

All through her work, Greiman involved herself in the careful exploration of the various meaning of typography. She also looked for ways in which she could transform the flat two-dimensional canvas into three-dimensional space through the art of layering. Layering was one of the techniques that could not be possible with the traditional analog design tools. Greiman scrutinized video and motion-based media alongside print media (Park, j & Soyoung, 2014). Her hybrid design pieces showcased the impact of her relentless efforts in experimenting with digital media. At this point, she started integrating traditional design elements with her newfound digital techniques to come up with unique and excellent designs. She set the stage for the upcoming generation to strive to bring about newness in the design industry.

The New Wave Style

The New Wave style is a designing technique that uses inconsistent and, in most cases, wide letter spacing. The style uses varying types of weights within single or multiple words. The style also uses multiple angles. The New Wave style questioned the contemporary styles in which words and letters appear on a page. Greiman ignored the use of indentation within paragraphs and applied what she termed as typographical adventures. With the use of the New Wave style of design, Greiman was able to depict innovative use of imagery as captured from video cameras and combined with classical typography (Barndt, 2014). Through the use of the New Wave style, Greiman is recognized to have created a bridge between the modern and post-modern techniques of graphic design. Greiman linked the limitations of newly introduced technology and, through it, devoted her time to learn about pixelation. She fundamentally understood the aesthetic value of this digital and technological 'accident,' as others termed it.

Her Work

One of her works, “hand holding a bowl of rice," an artwork that spread between the walls of two buildings, positioned opposite each other, and one that created a visual connection between two structures that are physically positioned at a distance, was recently commissioned in Koreatown, Los Angeles. The artwork depicts the way Greiman expresses design through the use of a variety of flexible mediums. The artwork was Greiman’s way of encouraging designers to ask themselves questions on how best they can communicate their message to their prospective audience. Up to today, Greiman refers to her numerous works as the use of technology to remain fluent in the design industry. In this context, design becomes a language, and just like in any language, for one to communicate effectively, there is a pressing need to have a heightened level of fluency.

Greiman has done multiple kinds of graphics ranging from billboard creation to menus (Kirton, 2011). Her greatest desire is to be the pioneer of ideas and designs, and this explains the reason why she is always eager to open things up and rethink her designs from the ground up. Though most contemporary designers have objected to the way she plays fast and loose with different types of media, innovative designers perceive her as their role model. Greiman's home, located in Lincoln Heights, is a perfect mirror of her iconic work. The house is adorned with drawing boards and a host of Macintosh computers. A huge window that overlooks downtown towers is a representation of the restless design world that Greiman appreciates as stimulating and exciting in all ramifications.

In the 1980s, Greiman taught at the California Institute of the Arts, located in Valencia (Greiman, 2020). While working in the institute, she worked alongside photographer Jayme Odgers who was instrumental in her projects when she was experimenting with video and computers. Currently, she is serving as faculty in both Southern California Institute of Architecture and Woodbury University School of Architecture. Up to today, her 1986 issue on Design Quarterly is on display in Walker's exhibition Art at the center.

Achievements and Awards

A slender woman in his mid-adulthood age bubbles with energy, ambition, and enthusiasm just like she was during her initial career days. She considers herself blessed to be working in such an innovative career field as graphics design. She is normally quoted saying, “all our ideas, all our techniques are in the melting pot. Who knows what will happen next?” Over the years, Greiman has won multiple awards both in the national and international arena. Through her Made in Space institution based in Los Angeles, Greiman has progressively created vital works in multiple media for about 30 years. She is recognized to have pioneered the integration of art and technology. She is also recognized as one of the very first practitioners to explore the creative potential of desktop computers. One emblematic recognition came as a result of her unique combination of the postmodernist mentality with digital technology, especially in her appreciation of the New Wave style in the 1980s. Her direction in the field of art, famously known as the Wet Magazine, is a touchstone in the digital era, one that inspires scores of graphic designers across the world.

Greiman was featured in the Pacific Wave Exhibition that took place in 1987 in Venice, Italy. During an international poster design show held in New York in the same year, Greiman was selected as one of the six most influential and excellent designers of the time. Of the 16 posters commissioned by the Olympics Organizing committee in 1984, Greiman’s poster that displayed two running legs silhouetted against a square-shaped bright blue sky was recognized as the most memorable and exemplarily done work (Barkai, 2019). In the introduction of her book, Massimo Vignelli, a famous designer from New York, hailed Greiman’s works by noting that it was simply explosive. Over the world, her work is recognized as intellectual and significantly emotional at the same time, an aspect that made her be recognized as the most daring and experimental graphics designer in the world.

In the early 1980s, Greiman was appointed the director of the Cal Arts program, specifically in the field of visual arts (Greiman, 2020). Currently, Greiman is famous for creating multiple multimedia works for both groups and solo shows. Her exemplary works have been featured in museums and galleries across the globe. Her innovative works have been published in all the famous magazines in the United States, such as the New York Times, Time Magazine. PBS and even ESPN. Greiman has also received numerous awards, such as the AIGA gold medal for lifetime achievement. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from multiple universities such as the Academy of Art University, Art Center College of Design, Lesley University, and Kansas City Art Institute (Greiman, 2020).

Controversies

When Greiman’s poster “Does it make sense” appeared during the fall of 1986, it was condemned as inappropriate, pornographic, and self-indulgent. Even with this notion, some people hailed her work as a radical advancement in the field of poster design. The poster contained a half-sized, nude fold-out of her body. She had digitized the image into an array of pixels. The poster displayed her body covered up with graffiti of various scientific symbols and photographs of a burgeoning supernova. Regardless of the controversy, the poster was commissioned for the Minneapolis Walker Art Center Design Quarterly and recognized as Greiman’s creative bridge between technology and art (Sinfield, 2013). Greiman’s termed her work as hybrid imagery. Even with the controversy and the unacceptability, the poster gave birth to a new age of graphics design where imagery and bitmapped images were generally appreciated and accepted across the globe.

In conclusion, Greiman remains one of the most excellent graphic design architects since the 1970s. Her works in experimenting with pixelation and the combination of old design models and post-modern architecture have earned her fame in the field of graphic design. She has received multiple awards and honorary doctorate degrees for her outstanding works. She is recognized to have introduced the New Wave style of graphic designing in the United States of America.

OUTLINE

1. Introduction of the topic about April Greiman
2. Description of Greiman’s Early Life
3. Description of Introduction to Digital Tools by April Greiman
4. Description of the new wave style introduced by April Greiman
5. Description of Greiman’s work and contributions to fashion and design
6. Explanation of the achievements and awards of April Greiman
7. Explanation of April Greiman’s controversies
8. References