Postmodernism - Wet Magazine, Vol 4 Issue 2, 1979. Designed by April Greiman

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A New Visual Language: From New Wave to Postmodernism in Graphic Design

A 1,500 essay on the transformative era of graphic design from the 1970s to the 1990s. Moving beyond the constraints of modernism, designers like Wolfgang Weingart and April Greiman redefined visual communication through bold experimentation with type, colour, and early computer graphics. This essay highlights how postmodernism and New Wave design introduced complexity, individuality, and digital innovation in to graphic design.

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April Greiman

April Greiman is a pioneering designer who merged European Modernism with the bold, experimental style of California New Wave. She was born in New York in 1948, studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Basel School of Design in Switzerland, where she was influenced by the New Wave movement led by Wolfgang Weingart. Greiman later moved to Los Angeles in 1976, where she founded the multidisciplinary studio, Made in Space. She was one of the first designers to adopt computer technology and integrate it in her work.

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