Tuesday, April 25, 2023

April Greiman THE NEW WAVE (1980s)


512K! How could you do anything with that?

We finally got a 512k machine, the Mac Plus, which is how Design Quarterly was done. We used MacVision, which was a little beige box that hooked up to a video camera and ported right into the Mac. You could scan over an image and it was tiled out. We kept moving the camera, scanning and repeating.




April Greiman is recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a designing tool early as 1984 and, to a lesser extent, for introducing the New Wave aesthetic to the US.  


Greiman was not only influenced by the International Style, but also by the style later to become known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on the Modernist heritage. 

Greiman is credited with establishing the New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s, along with early collaborator Jamie Obers.


Ten years later, in 1984, the Macintosh was making an unsteady entry into the design market. Most designers were skeptical of—if not completely opposed to—the idea of integrating the computer into design practice, perhaps fearing an uncertain future wherein the tactility of the hand was usurped by the mechanics of bits and bytes. 



April Greiman recognized the vast potential of this new medium. An avid fan of tools and technologies since childhood, Greiman quickly established herself as a pioneer of digital communications design. 


I don't touch film, it's all digital. All of our printing is digital. I haven't touched a piece of film for 20 years. I really haven't.