David Carson is a prominent contemporary graphic
designer and art director. His unconventional and experimental graphic style,
revolutionized graphic designing scene in America in the 1990s. Carson was the
art director of the magazine Ray Gun. He introduced innovative
typographies and layout. He claimed to be the godfather of Grunge
typography which he perpetually used in his magazine issues.
David Carson was born on 8th September, 1955, in
Corpus Christi, Texas. He went to study sociology from San Diego State
University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He touched upon
graphic designing briefly while attending a two-week commercial designing class
at the University of Arizona, in 1980. He attended the Oregon College of
Commercial Art to study graphic designing and did a three-week workshop in
Switzerland as part of his degree. He got a teaching job in a Californian high
school and he taught there for several years. One of his many talents include
professional surfing and, in the year 1989, he was ranked as the 9th
best surfer in the world.
David Carson, in his later life, began his journey for graphic designing. In the beginning he worked for a magazine, Self and Musician, covering surfers’ interests. He also worked for the Transworld Skateboarding magazine which paved way for his experimental designing. In 1984, David became the art director for the magazine and updated its design and layout until his tenure ended. He developed a signature style with the use of unconventional ‘dirty’ type photographic techniques. In the year 1987, he lent his expertise to the extension of the magazine Transworld Skateboarding. He got a job as the art director for the magazine Beach Culture, which ceased to exist only after six issues. Carson made a name for himself as his designs were recognized for his unique style and typography which consequently made him earn over a hundred design awards. The publisher of the alternative-music magazine Ray Gun, saw his true potential as a graphic designer and offered him a job in the year 1992. David Carson tripled the magazine's circulation and attracted a wide readership. To keep the spirit of the magazine alive he notoriously published a tiresome interview with Bryan Ferry in Zapf Dingbats (symbol) font.
Grunge design by David Carson  |
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Besides, Mr. Carson also worked in branding projects
and made designs for surfboards and potato chips. He also worked for popular companies
such as Nike, Pepsi, Microsoft, Levi Strauss, MTV, AT&T, Sony. In
these projects, he used his unique visual language to mainstream advertising,
often pushing the boundaries of corporate design norms. He also worked
for clients such as Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, American Airlines, and NBC. He
even worked for various publications, and even the Atlanta Olympic Committee.
Eventually he established his own design studio and, till date, continues to
work on a mix of commercial, cultural and artistic projects worldwide, often giving
lectures and workshops on visual communication worldwide.
The End Of Print
David Carson’s design style characterized by the
chaotic typography and pattern it embodies, disarray of photos overlapping each
other, which seems meaningless at the surface but it holds a larger picture. He
turned “bad design” elements like weird typography and distressed graphics into
high art. Carson’s innovative style of
visual communication attracted new readers but it also repelled many who considered his work misleading. David Carson
influenced many new graphic designers with his design trends like Grunge,
minimalism and using mixed media. He introduced a level experimentalism
which liberated modern graphic designers from the traditional design rules.
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