APRIL GREIMAN / PENTAGRAM
[Pentagram]
[Pentagram]: APRIL GREIMAN / PENTAGRAM. Pentagram Publications, n.d, n.a.p., [2000]. Original edition. 4.25 x 5.75 softcover, perfect-bound book in thick wrappers showing what Pentagram does best: self-promotion. 34 pages of April Greiman's work including a small, oddly-shaped CD. A fine copy.
4.25 x 5.75 perfect-bound softcover book with 34 full-color pages [including fold-outs] of April Greiman's work, including a small oddly-shaped Portfolio CD encased inside the rear panel. The CD has to be loaded via a tray—I just tried it in my MacBook Pro and the small and non-circular size of the disc does not engage comtemporary Apple CD drive technology.
Excerpted from her 1998 AIGA MEDAL citation "April Greiman was a designer in New York City in the mid-1970s when she decided to leave the comfort of a design community deeply entrenched in European tradition for an uncertain future on the opposite coast. Seeking a new spirit, she moved to Los Angeles and entered a culture that, for better or for worse, had a limited aesthetic of its own at that time. Museums and galleries were few and it was impossible to get a decent cup of coffee. But the lack of an established design practice created a unique opportunity to explore new paradigms in communications design . . .
" 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. A visionary few, including 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. “The digital landscape fascinates me in the same way as the desert,” she says. This fascination comes from the core of her being, a core of perpetual curiosity and questioning that fuels her desire to explore and inspires the cutting-edge design work that places her at the helm of integrated design at the close of the twentieth century . . .
". . . One begins to realize that for Greiman, everything is a laboratory. From her investigations at the leading edge of the California New Wave to her pioneering work in digital media and hybrid processes, Greiman sets an example for future generations of designers to be willing to ask the questions that need to be asked . . .
All of which begs the question -- why did April Greiman ever accept a partnership with Pentagram?
"For mysterious reasons that can only be in part attributed to their origins as a design group, the people at Pentagram have been ableto maintain a design commitment that uniquely displays the benefits of working co-operatively." --Milton Glaser, Designer/New York
"Much of the most exemplary work in today's graphic field is from their hands. Their solutions have been followed or copied by many but there has never been a Pentagram style. They are designers who first of all solve the problems of their clients in a very creative and challenging way." --Wim Crouwel, Designer/Amsterdam
"Pentagram still presents itself as a very unique formula of beautifully balanced elements, each one preserving its personality, yet contributing to the whole an unmistakable character. Highly professional, tenderly romantic, extremely empirical, they represent for me the best the English tradition offers today." ---Massimo Vignelli, Designer/New York
"The success of this group of designers in maintaining consistently high standards of analytical and creative thinking, originality as well as of formal design, reveals rare organisational talents. Is it that the Pentagram consortium is in itself a brilliant design solution?" --Herbert Spencer, Designer/London