— William Mocca
"David Carson may or may not be a man on a mission, but he is definitely in search, and this volume follows his footprints along the water's edge, right down to where they disappear."
Drew Kampion,
former editor of several surfing magazines, in Trek
''The images —
some conventionally interesting,
others indecipherable —
are flung onto the pages
like paint on a canvas
that magically lands in just the right place.''
ID Magazine
Introduction
In pursuing a career as a graphic designer, David Carson is able to draw on his experience as a sociology teacher and as a competitive surfer. His move to this career field came with the training of a single design course. He has won awards the design field for his designs and the incorporation of his photography in designs. His work in varied mediums that include print media, film, videos, and corporate design have given him wide exposure and visibility both in the design community and to the general public.
Philosophy of Design
Carson’s philosophy of design is exemplified in his work. There are no boundaries----none for images, none for text, and none for his imagination. The individual viewing the design does not necessarily need to come away with a complete understanding of what he or she is seeing. Perhaps he or she simply needs to be drawn to it out of curiosity, out of confusion, or even out of admiration. Carson sees the value of connecting with Generation X though his designs. Just as the boundaries are limitless, so are the possibilities in the mind of David Carson when it comes to his designs.
Design Techniques
A website entitled, “A Page for Graphic Designers” (http://www.complink.net/greg/designsite/carson.htm) describes Carson’s style in the following way:
“His unique style has been called illegible. Rules of design are constantly and consistently broken in Carson's work.
He would let typed lines run into each other, cross gutters, or be upside-down.
He would layer type and image until neither was distinguishable on the page
and even continued an article on the front cover of a magazine.
Carson has never believed that one must first know the rules in order to break them.”
In the November, 1999 edition of I.D.Magazine, Chip Kidd describes the technique Carson used in his book, Fotografiks, by writing, "...the images....are flung onto the pages like paint on a canvas that magically lands in just the right place."
Carson is not afraid to use blurred images as in his photograph of a woman in a subway, the image of a baby with a red background, and in a shot from a Venetian water taxi.
Likewise, he is often exuberant in his use of color and emotionalism in his work. Examples that contain these elements include a design with a man in front of a building with a mural, the varied building colors in a photograph taken in South America, and his design with a girl twirling around to the camera.
Carson has a unique eye for symmetry. His photograph from a European hotel room is simplistic in its clean lines around the window that are complimented by the fencing outside the room. His design with a young boy holding up a fish finds symmetry though Carson’s use of the water theme.
Use of Typography
Carson is well known for testing the boundaries of typography. Carson’s uniqueness in the area of typography was chosen for the magazines “How” and “Aldus”. Ralph Caplan said Carson was “experimenting in public” as he worked with popular content and employed his own extreme intuition in the process.
Carson often chooses everyday items and scenes for his work and layers text, though often illegible to the viewer, within, beside, over, and under the images. There is an impulsiveness to much of his work. His text sometimes has a handwritten quality while, at other times, strict typewriter font types are his choice. A mixture of capital and lower case letters can be found in Carson designs.
Text overlapping is not an unusual characteristic of his work. An example is the “stability” Nike shoe design. Tattered, torn, grungy images mold into the text. Blurring of text, accompanying the photograph design of a girl twirling, reveals “Can dance with you”. Overlapping and blurred text are combined in another design with the text, “Can I dance with you, baby?”
The surfer influence remains strong in many of his designs to which younger generations are drawn. “The photos that changed the way we surf” immediately reminds us of Carson’s own love of surfing by the use of “we” in the text.
In his book, Fotografiks, Carson shares stunning photographic images from visits around the world. He personalizes some of the images with captions that are seemingly handwritten and tell a memory or antidote related to the scene.
Impact on the Design Community
Carson is revolutionary in his design work. It has been criticized and heralded within the field. Designers and those with designer needs are drawn to his pieces and overall style.
Carson’s impact on the design community is evident in his design style as well as in his ability to share his talent and expertise with others though his books. The End of Print is one of the all-time best selling design books. The book states, “Carson’s groundbreaking approach to typography and layout has inspired a following of young designers eager to break with tradition and forge a new aesthetic.”
The American Center of Design has featured multiple works by Carson in its yearly 100 Show. In 1996 it determined that the new work by Carson was “the most important work in this year’s show”. A London-based publication called his work “the most important work coming out of America” and named him “Art Director of the Era”. Beach Culture magazine won over 150 awards within only six issues in 1990.
Conclusion
The works of David Carson could be valid enough for museums to put them in their collections or, at the very least, feature them in a gallery showing. Carson embodies both of the words of his chosen career field, graphic designer. There is an endless creativity to his designs. He is an artist who draws on twentieth and twenty-first century life.
Analysis and Critique of a Carson Work
Carson’s “Guinness” design typifies his work in many ways. It is symmetrical in the motion of the waves; it employs the use of vivid color; it contains multiple levels for the viewer to attempt to absorb; and it has an unmistakably modern flair. The texture of the work makes the viewer want to reach out and touch the red to see if it feels hot, the waves to become a part of the motion. Carson uses the block at the right of the design to reiterate the color scheme and to contrast the texture found in the left portion.
Read an Interview with Carson
http://www.charleston.net/stories/082804/hip_28carson.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment