April Greiman is a pioneer in embracing technology as an element of design. She's known for combining analog and digital elements to make unexpected, bright and innovative compositions. Looking to challenge my conceptions of convention, I redesigned the cover of April Greiman's book "Hybrid Imagery." I hoped to invoke the vibrancy, exploration and playfulness that April brings to her work.
April's cover for Hybrid Imagery, April herself and a couple examples of her work
Below: Using text from the full title; "Hybrid Imagery: The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design published by Watson-Guptill New York, NY 1990" I experimented with manipulating that text. I put the text under water, looked through different shapes of glass, used colored tape on my camera lens and cellophane. After I was happy with an image, I took a photo of that image on screen for more distortion and a pixelated effect.
I ended up going with my under water NY composition. The background had depth, but wasn't overwhelming.
Below: Iterations with the text. This project showed me how much my brain LOVES rules. Even with this being an exercise in exploring the unconventional, it was hard to let go of things like where text traditionally belongs, its hierarchy, and use of font.
Front of the cover. Combining the "i" in Imagery with Hybrid and overlaying the letters, I was hoping to express the meaning of hybrid.
Back cover. The final product measured 12" x 12", with a .75" spine and 4" flaps.
Inside flap text. Knowing the text would be unreadable placed on the background, I decided to add these different sized blocks. The blocks gave a rigid contrast to the background text, which is curvy and flexible. Breaking with convention, the text comes out and wraps around the front.
"Graphic Design" was also placed as its own square. Not wanting the text to be too uniform, I kept the square from being completed when intersected with one of the white blocks.
The spine. Maybe my favorite bit of my cover. For me, the placement of April backwards on top of the upside down Greiman has a interesting effect. When they were placed independently from each other, their orientation is very noticeable. When I put them stacked, I automatically read it right to left and don't read April as being backwards.
