Irregular grids, Images and Ink: David Carson
by Christina Capoferi
For most people in this country— let alone world— others’ opinions matter, a lot. The credentials of an industry expert or leading professional are examined and scrutinized. Schooling, additional training and past experiences follow them around as their background and biographies are posted on websites, printed in publications and added to resumes.For David Carson, none of the aforementioned matters. When being interviewed for the website Speak Up, Carson was asked if “it worried him that ‘any tale about you from a designer ends with ‘what an asshole’?” He said he was not worried.[1]
A professional surfer and student in California, Carson studied sociology and graduated with “honors and distinction”.[2] Throughout his time in college, he was ranked at the #9 surfer in the world. After college, he continued to surf and worked as a high school teacher.[3]
It was not until he enrolled for a two-week commercial design class for high school students that he became inspired (by his instructor, Swiss designer Hans-Rudolph Lutz) to enter a field in which he had no prior experience. The said he “did not know there was a profession called graphic design.”[4] Shortly after, Carson enrolled in a full-time design school. After six months, he was hired as an unpaid graphic design intern by a music magazine, Self and Musician. With those experiences under his belt, he joined Transworld Skateboarding. [5] There, he was given a lot of room for creativity. He began to define and refine his style that Newsweek says “changed the public face of graphic design.” Carson’s style—overlapping photos, illegible text and scattered headlines— began to make an impact in the graphic design community. He joined Beach Culture, another alternative magazine, as Art Director. During his short time at the magazine (only six issues were published), he earned more than 100 awards based on the innovative designs produced. [6] Joe Clark, journalist from Toronto, describes Carson’s pre-Ray Gun style as, “weirdo fonts (mostly from the kooky Emigre typefoundry), lines of type that bashed into each other and wandered all over the page, and experimental photography and illustration. You’d find no orderly grid keeping page layouts tidy and staid.” Even with the negative opinions forming, Carson was still in the spotlight within the graphic design world. He was then hired as the Art Director for Ray Gun.
Carson was only at Ray Gun, also seen as rAY GUn, RAYGUN, ray gun[7] for two and a half year tenure.[8] While he was there, his youth-focused design tripled subscriptions. The avant-garde design caused the American Center for Design (Chicago) to name Ray Gun “the most important work coming out of America.”[9] He was gaining much praise but also much criticism.
Patrick Burgoyne of Creative Review says, “the nature of Carson’s work has also sat uncomfortably within the design establishment. It is unapologetically personal and self-indulgent. It relies not on the interpretation of theory or adherence to rules but is entirely intuitive.”
Clark describes his most famous style as, “overlapping blocks of copy; light text against dark backgrounds; dark text against dark backgrounds; running text across pages, including stories that are read horizontally across columns (just hop over the gutter between them); deliberately running photos upside-down.” Clark wrote a story for Ray Gun and Carson set the copy “in a font without parentheses, em dashes, or accents, resulting in spaces where those characters would have been.” It was rare to see typical typefaces used in his work; he pioneered the use unclean fonts. As a result, Carson was accused of not communicating effectively because of the abstract ideas the designs contained. His reason for not following formal design rules is that he never learned them.[10]
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Associate Professor at University of Maryland says, “typos are commonplace in Ray Gun. Carson used no page numbers. Titles and headings and pull-quotes have occasionally been left off of or out of articles.”[11]
Negative opinions did not stop judges from awarding Carson with prestigious awards. Graphis Magazine lists Carson as a “Master of Typography.” He was chosen as one of “America’s Most Innovative Designers” by I.D. Magazine. Emirge dedicated an entire issue to Carson, the only American to ever be featured that extensively. He also received four gold Charleston Addy awards. And Creative Review named Carson “the most famous graphic designer on the planet.”[12]
Carson was fired fall of 1995. According to Andrew Blauvelt, chair of graphic design department at Cranbrook, he was a “ferocious promoter” and had a “gigantic ego.”[13]
From there, he started his own company, David Carson Design. Immediately, Carson was approached by influential, world-wide companies to take them as clients: Microsoft, Toyota and Giorgio Armani.[14] The company is modest, with only three employees including Carson.[15] Within that same year, Carson released his first book, The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson. Currently, this book is the best selling graphic design book on the market, selling more than 200,000 copies in five different languages.[16] The book was rereleased in 2000 with an updated title, The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson.” [17] Since then, Carson has published more books of his work: 2nd Sight, Fotografiks, The Book of Probes and most recently, TREK.[18]
In addition to working with the firm’s more than 60 clients, Carson speaks to students and professionals around the world. He is not afraid to speak his mind at conferences and during his speeches. He said sometimes he can, “”piss people off who’ve invited me to speak at events and it’s gotten me into trouble.” Carson’s reputation of being egotistical and free-spirited is false, according to him. He said no one has spoken to the more students than he.[19] His website is complete with fan emails expressing their respect for Carson. Some tell stories of how Carson’s designs launched their passion and, eventually, career in graphic design. He is also the Creative Director for the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.
Lewis Blackwell co-author of The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson thinks Carson’s contribution to the publication, design and typography world will continue to be printed in books and referenced. He said Carson, “converted an abstract, somewhat dry area into something a little sexy. Briefly.”[20]
As with many thought-leaders in the world, criticism is intense, not everyone likes their ideas or products, but their name lives in the history books as changing the way an industry, area or community runs.
Works Cited
Burgoyne, Patrick, “Where is David Carson?” Creative Review 24 (2004): 46-49.
Carson, David, “dcd,” Bio, David Carson, www.davidcarsondesign.com, February 20, 2011.
Clark, Joe, “Illegible David Carson cannot communicate,” Joe Clark, www.joeclark.org, February 20, 2011.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew G., “The Other End of Print, David Carson, Graphic Design, and the Aesthetics of Media,” MIT Communications Forum, www.mit.edu, February 20, 2011.
Peter Plagens, Ray Sawhill, “The font of youth. (graphic designer David Carson),” Newsweek February 1996.
Shepter, Joe, “David Carson,” Adobe, www.adobe.com, February 20, 2011.
Young, Stephen, “David Carson,” Quazen, www.quazen.com, February 20, 2011.
[1] Burgoyne, Patrick, “Where is David Carson?” Creative Review 24 (2004): 46-49. [2] Carson, David, “dcd,” Bio, David Carson, www.davidcarsondesign.com, February 20, 2011.
[3] Young, Stephen, “David Carson,” Quazen, www.quazen.com, February 20, 2011.
[4] Clark, Joe, “Illegible David Carson cannot communicate,” Joe Clark, www.joeclark.org, February 20, 2011.
[5] Peter Plagens, Ray Sawhill, “The font of youth. (graphic designer David Carson),” Newsweek February 1996.
[6] Young
[7] Clark
[8] Plagens, Sawhill
[9] Carson
[10] Clark
[11] Kirschenbaum, Matthew G., “The Other End of Print, David Carson, Graphic Design, and the Aesthetics of Media,” MIT Communications Forum, www.mit.edu, February 20, 2011.
[12] Carson
[13] Plagens, Sawhill
[14] Young
[15] Shepter, Joe, “David Carson,” Adobe, www.adobe.com, February 20, 2011.
[16] Carson
[17] Young
[18] Carson
[19] Burgoyne
[20] Burgoyne
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