Museum Piece: April Greiman - Todd Hays
- Swiss style of design
o Formal usage of typography (classical Swiss typography) – trademark
- “Design” >“Visual Communication”
- Hybrid Imagery
- ‘Trans-media artist.’
- Specialized generalist
- Messy first then tidy, harder to start tidy then go messy
- Design must seduce, shape, and evoke emotional response
April Greiman is one of the first graphic designers to incorporate computer technology to create graphic art. She gained much success after her 1984 Olympics poster designs and after her Design Quarterly spread, which she completely changed the entire format by making fold out poster. In Todd Hays article he explains Greiman’s ground breaking computer practices that propelled her into the design spotlight. The article shows Greiman’s process of her collaged posters with unique use of typography and spatial elements. Greiman’s process consists of scanning images to a computer or even creating images on software. She carefully makes a layout of the main background and then moves to creating typography. In the mid 1980s Greiman’s use of typography was unconventional, using typography to convey space and movement in her designs.
In a two-part interview by idsgn: A Design Blog, April Greiman discusses her views on technology and her place in the design world. Greiman explains that she does not view herself as a graphic designer but as a “trans-media artist”. She declares this title due to her use of different fields: photography, film, typography, drawing and many others. As a “trans-media artist” she is free from the boundaries of so called “graphic artists”. At the time when computers were rarely available and expensive to use, the technology was frowned upon. Greiman saw computers as a tool to make her visions come to life and to avoid hours of cutting, pasting, photographing and repeating. Although she exclusively uses computers and digital cameras for her work she exclaims how the designer software created for and used by designers was not made by “creative designers”. She explains how the designers of programs such as Adobe are of people of technical backgrounds who are trying to solve different problems of the designers who actually use the programs. Designers who use Adobe or other software are trying to communicate with an audience and only use a small percentage of the actual software. Programs are designed to solve computer like problems, but those who design the software have no indication of how we as “graphic designers” or “trans-media artists” actually work or think. The most interesting statement made by Greiman is to start messy then go tidy, because it’s harder to start tidy, then go messy. This to me is eye opening, considering in art school you are taught to be as deliberately pristine as possible. Greiman’s practices and use of technology is purposeful in creating work that might not be capable by hand. Her methodology of combining different fields and testing the boundaries of typography bring graphic design into a new realm of possibilities.
Pixel Perfect: Pascal Dangin’s Virtual Reality (2008)
Lauren Collins
- Pascal Dangin – the premier retoucher of fashion photographers
- Dangin’s, Box Studios, 80 staff – 4 story warehouse in meatpacking district
- A master printer, “digitally re-mastering” old negatives and producing fine-art prints for exhibition
- Crossover between cameras and computers
- Retouching looks natural
- Creativity should lead technology, rather technology leading creativity
Like April Grieman who revolutionized the Graphic Design industry with computer technology, Pascal Dangin applies computer techniques with photograph to re-touch and re-shape images. Unlike Grieman who faced scrutiny in her field for using computer technology, Collins explains how the re-touching and altering of images has been a practice since the mid-1800s. Dangin who is the “premier re-toucher of fashin photgraphers” is known for his alterations, which lead to final products that look very natural (Collins 95). Dangin believes in using creativity first and exploiting the technology that is available and that the use of technology should be deliberate and for a purpose. He explains that some people overly alter images that create something too fake or too generic. Dangin’s company, Box Studios, is known for enforcing each staff member to take classes in anatomy and figure drawing and each member must educated in art history. The purpose of this is apart of Dangin’s practice of a painterly approach to his practice, he prides him self on “technical prowees to an aesthetic sensibility” (Collins 95). I believe it is important for designers like Dangin and other artists to put their creativity before technology and only use technology if necessary. Today there are too many designs or works of art that seem overly produced by computer programs. The idea of taking a painterly approach with deliberate actions to make a work of art, photograph, or any design to be removed from the mark of hand is important when conveying and provoking emotions and thought. The idea is to communicate with an audience with natural and aesthetically pleasing designs, overly worked computer imagery that looks too mechanical can often work against an idea or meaning a work of art, photograph, or design is trying to convey.
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