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DESIGNERS are a dreamy bunch. Where we see chain-link fences, they imagine vistas; where we see letters as utilitarian symbols, they see vectors and human impulses; where we see books, they see experiences. Of course, some designers see their work as practical, physical -- necessary, in the most fundamental sense of the word. Inefficiency is ugly; lack of clarity is debilitating; language, in all its many forms -- aural, visual and print -- is only one way to tell a story.
This is where Lorraine Wild comes in. In the world of graphic design, particularly book design, Wild is one of the most innovative and thoughtful designers around. Her Los Angeles imprint, Green Dragon Office, established in 1996, has designed exhibition catalogs for museums including MOCA, UCLA's Hammer Museum and the Getty Center as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. There are art books such as "Looking at Los Angeles" (Metropolis Books), "Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Culture" (D.A.P.), "Beat Culture and the New America 1955-1965" (Whitney Museum of American Art / Harry N. Abrams) and "Masters of American Comics" (Yale University Press). Greybull Press, which Wild started in 1999 with two friends, Lisa Eisner and Roman Alonso, publishes photographic books -- forgotten archives of obsessions, heroes, subcultures, rituals and ceremonies, including a collection of Dennis Hopper photos from "1712 North Crescent Heights" and "Portraits of Women" by R. Crumb.
Wild has also taught at the California Institute of the Arts since 1985. (She was the director of the graphic design program from 1985 to 1991.) In spite of all this experience and authority, most of her work involves listening -- collaboration with curators, editors, publishers and artists. She has spent years studying the ways we read, think and absorb information, mix word and image. She is conscious of how often designers use a meta-language that can seem indecipherable. She does not, she insists, want to sound like a bloviator.
Wild's studio is in a small, Spanish-style house with green trim and terra-cotta roof tiles next to her home in Hancock Park. She sits in a room with a conference table and wall-to-wall bookshelves. The jacaranda is blooming, and a vintage bicycle leans against a crumbling stucco wall.
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