David Carson A brief look at his work1
David Carson was born in Texas in the United States. Many of his design influences have come from his early childhood while travelling around America, Puerto Rico and the West Indies. His first significant exposure to graphic design education came as part of a three-week workshop in Switzerland, where the Swiss graphic designer Hans-Rudolph Lutz influenced him. He then worked in a high school near San Diego from 1982 to 1987. During this time he also carried highly experimental graphic design as the art director of the magazine Transworld Skateboarding. Among his abilities of art directing, graphic designing and film directing, he was also a professional surfer. His immense interest in the surfing culture persuaded him to return to the West Coast where he helped launch the magazine Beach Culture. The magazine only lasted three years but Carson's pioneering approach to design, particularly toward typography challenged the fundamental aspects of all design and graphic communication. Carson's work was often arresting and powerfully communicative. From 1991 to 1992 he worked on Surfer magazine. The straightforward styling of the covers was a strong contrast to the later "How" magazine
RAY-BAN SHEET His commercial clients included major American brands such as Pepsi Cola, Nike, Levi-Strauss, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, Ray-Ban and NBC. You may also note that his name is more prominent than the actual Ray-Ban logo and that it appears directly below the logo. As you can see in the corner of this ad, unlike the majority of designers, Carson likes to show the reader that he is the designer and insists on most of his ads to carry his name. INTERNET SITE SHEETThis final piece of work is for two ads for an Internet search company, which play off the idea of extracting the right information. The first line is also very catchy and the whole text draws you deeper and deeper into the ad until you hit the punch line. This idea was also used across posters, print ads and postcards. I think this is some of Carson's best work because the typography involved could be said to be the diffinitive Carson, showing his typography skills to there fullest. David Carson's approach to graphic design and communication is distinguished by rejecting precise methods, in favour anti-modernism. In his "Time After Type" workshop in Dusseldorf, Carson suggested the signing of the space should be done by projecting large type into one corner. Here you can see that the type is only readable in one space, providing an intriguing exploration of perspective that requires viewers to question their relationship with the sign and to seek out the route to communication. CUERVO GOLD SHEET Another interesting advert, this time with heavy typographic influence is this one for Cuervo Gold Tequila. WORKSHOP SHEETAt the same time he worked for low-cost or free with student workshops, talks and related activities. This magazine, aimed at the youth market with the sub-title of "the bible of music+style", received more attention for Carson's design than for its relatively conventional text content.
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Acceptance Essays
