David Carson by Carolina DeGroot
A relatively new, yet highly influential person in the art and advertising world is graphic designer, David Carson. Carson was born September 8th, 1955 in Corpus Christi, Texas. He initially studied sociology at San Diego State University, and surfed professionally, ranking number 9 in the world. It was not until age 26 that he started exploring his interest in design. After participating in workshops and enrolling in commercial art classes, Carson landed his first design job working for a surfer magazine called Self and Musician. He then moved on to Transworld Skateboarding, which allowed him to be more experimental with his spreads. He mixed and altered fonts, while using overlapping photographs, giving his work chaotic and grungy characteristics. Photographer Albert Watson commented on his style by saying, “He uses type the way a painter uses paint, to create emotion, to express ideas,” which was still a new concept at the time.
In 1989, Carson became art director of Beach Culture magazine, where he won over 150 design awards, including “Best Overall Design” and “Cover of the Year” from the Society of Publication Designers in New York. In 1992 he was appointed art director of Ray Gun magazine, which caused their circulation to triple. Ray Gun was an alternative music magazine, so instead of designing by a grid or with any specific structure, Carson created spreads based on how the music spoke to him.
For example, Carson designed a spread on musician Bryan Ferry, but when he read the content he had to work with he found it very boring and not worth reading. As a solution, he set the article in the Zapf Dingbats typeface, which is made up of symbols rather than letters.
Carson constantly stresses, “Don’t mistake legibility for communication.” In a documentary on Helvetica, Carson criticizes the lack of expression in certain words written in Helvetica, such as “caffeinated,” and “explosion,” because of their bland appearance. He said, “There’s a very fine line between simple and clean and powerful, and simple and clean and boring.”
Carson’s philosophy is to work in a way that is more subjective and self-indulgent. In a presentation he gave for TED he said, “You have to utilize who you are in your work. Nobody else can do that. Nobody else can pull from your background, your parents, your upbringing, your whole life experience. If you allow that to happen, it’s really the only way you can do some unique work.”
By 1995, Carson established his own company, David Carson Design, Inc. He also published his first book, The End of Print, which has become the top selling graphic design book of all time, with over 200,000 copies sold, and prints in 5 different languages. Since then he has made several other publications, including, 2nd Sight, Fotografiks, with design historian Philip Meggs, TREK, and The Book of Probes with Marshall McLuhan.
Carson has done design work for names that are recognized worldwide. He did extensive work on the branding campaign for Microsoft in 1998, as well as advertising for Giorgio Armani (Milan). His client list includes, but is certainly not limited to, American Express, Apple Computers, Atlantic Records, Budweiser (1995 Superbowl spot), Bush, CNN, Cuervo Gold, Fox TV, Kodak, Levi’s, Meg Ryan, Mercedes Benz, MGM Studios, MTV, NBC, Nike, Nine Inch Nails, Nissan, Pepsi, Quiksilver, Ray Ban, Sony, Toyota, Warner Brothers and Xerox .
Today, Carson serves as the creative director for the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, North Carolina. He continues to do separate work for various clients, as well as lecture and run workshops at schools such as RISD, Cal Arts, Notre Dame and School of Visual Arts. Carson has been named “Designer of the Year,” by the International Center for Photography, “Master of Typography,” by Graphis Magazine, and was listed as one of “America’s most innovative designers,” by I.D. Magazine. Carson’s work was described as “visually stunning” by USA Today, and was said to have “changed the public face of graphic design,” by Newsweek Magazine. In addition, Carson had an entire issue of the graphic design publication, Emigre, devoted to him, making him the only American designer to receive such an honor. In April 2004, the London based magazine, Creative Review called Carson, “the most famous graphic designer on the planet,” and “the art director of the era,” and in July 2009, Surfrider Foundation described him as “the most influential graphic designer of our times.”
Carson’s unconventional methods have shaped art and design in new ways that have greatly impacted how we perceive visual communications. The message he delivers to design from intuition and personal feelings and experiences is very inspiring. Designers who follow his lead will continue to take risks, break the rules and be experimental in ways that will produce work that is original, engaging, and most importantly, from the heart.
Sources:
http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/97120/David-Carson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpIv7ww78zM
