David Cars THE PROCESS
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ABOUT THE TYPEFACE
To understand the excitement of this design, one must first understand who David Carson is. Carson was late to the game of Graphic Design as he had gone to college to study Sociology. His work was something the world had never seen before, and he was known for his daring use of typography. People criticized his work for its lack of legibility, but he was able to achieve something greater than legibility: The letterforms had emotion and spoke to the audience before it was read. He challenged every rule of typography and focused on telling a story through unconventional design. His key to success was designing for himself and sticking to his sense of design. Massimo Vignelli of Vignelli Magazine describes that, “Styles come and go. David’s design is a language, not a style,” (“David Carson &...”).
David Carson is a ransom typeface inspired by the one and only David Carson. Designed by Iordanis Passas in 2017, this typeface encompasses the grunge aesthetic of the 1990s and Ray Gun magazine. David Carson was the art director of Ray Gun and his use of experimental layouts and breaking the rules of typography led to exciting designs. Iordanis Passas has created a few other grunge typefaces, but this one is unique as it pulls directly from a collection of David Carson’s works.
Iordanis Passas embodies a lot of David Carson techniques within his own works such as breaking the grid and using typography as graphic elements. Both designers engage their audience with their unconventional layouts that focus on making the elements speak to the audience. Although Iordanis Passas published this typeface in 2017, the original design is pulled from David Carson Design archives. Passas collected works from David Carson’s most influential designs and extracted different letters, numbers, and ligatures to create a unique character set. This typeface pays a tribute to David Carson and each character within the set has its own voice.
