DAVID CARSON

A man recognised for bending rules and deconstructing legibility from communication.  A man who inspired a whole generation of young designers with his understanding of cultural style. 

Born in September 8, 1954 David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director and also a surfer. His synonymous for his use of experimental typography and as the art director of the magazine Ray Gun.

As the art director of Ray Gun he put to use much of the typographic and layout style.  In the 1990s there was a huge experimental vortex of typography going on and Caron was at its centre. This art was also referred to as "grunge typography".  The flaming pages of Ray Gun impressed the mind of the many who seeked to replicate and unlock the secrets of his new bold style.  Carson was shaping a new way, re defining type, layout and grid.  He represented a new breed of visual author.

Carson  was quite the rebel when it came to following trends and this showed up in his work when he made no use of information hierarch, layouts or typographic patterns nor did he make use of grid formats. However he did explore the possibilities of each spread and subject.  He not only was the art director and designer of the Ray Gun but also for Transworld Skateboarding,  Beach Culture, Surfer, Musician.  His revolutionary layouts always present in every spread.  The kind of setting the page numbers in large display format or enlarging prominent design elements, spacing the letters in the titles frantically across  images.  There was no space for normative sequences. The audience had to figure it out on his own. They had to decipher his messages and this kept them guessing.  It was a bit like a riddle for many. He explored reverse leading, forced extreme justification, no gutter and jamming text columns together. Text set in curved or irregular shapes or filled items. His designs materialised from the meaning of the words and gave them a whole deal of attention. Thus ultimately trying to achieve harmony.

Carson quotes:  “It’s the basic decisions—images, cropping and appropriate font and design choices—that make design work, not having the ability to overlap or play with opacity.”

The early 1990s, saw the advent of digital tools such as the computer.  Designers  had the ability to manipulate form directly in real time action. Some of the programs used at the time were QuarkXPress and PageMaker, both Carson’s primary medium of visual authorship. It allowed him to work faster and to experiment with more things in a shorter time. These new aids enabled also helped with the creation of “mistakes” which many a time are the way to experiment further on work by turning an accident into a master piece. However this was no magic pill and nor did it instil instant talent.  To quote, Cason say:   “It’s the basic decisions—images, cropping and appropriate font and design choices—that make design work, not having the ability to overlap or play with opacity.”

As it goes in this life, his legendary disregard for readability conventions has made him a hero to many and to some others, an agent of ugly.  I am not one of those latter ones. 

Bibliography

Lupton, E. (2015). David Carson. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from AIGA | the professional association for design: http://www.aiga.org/medalist-david-carson/

Meggs, P. B., & Purvis, A. W. (2012). Meggs’ History of Graphic Design (Fifth ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wikipedia, t. f. (2015, January 13). David Carson . Retrieved January 2015, 29, from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carson_(graphic_designer)