this month the issue is grunge
David Carson exploded onto the design scene rather late in his life after completing a short commercial art class, this passion was greatly enhance by the artistic and bohemian culture of southern California. The top ranking surfer began his experimentation whilst at Self and Musician, a small surfer magazine and continued in his role as art director for Transworld Skateboarding and developed his signature ‘dirty’ type style and non-conforming photographic techniques. This sub-culture was an excellent tool when he was appointed art director of Beach Culture magazine in 1989, where he won over 150 design awards including a best overall design and cover of the year, unfortunately the magazine folded after six issues, but propelled Carson forward in his career.
In 1992 Carson was hired as art director by Marvin Scott Jarrett for Ray Gun, a music magazine that had an antiestablishment, alternative facade. During his time there Carson tripled its circulation volume and widened the reader audience. Carson really come into his own at Ray Gun, exploring reverse leading, extreme force of justification and crammed text columns together. He also challenged the idea that communication must be legible, following through with this notion by famously publish an entire article in Zapf Dingbats font.
“Don’t mistake legibility for communication.” 2
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Carson literally tore the pages out the design rule book, questioning the The style signature revolved around his use aesthetic and purpose of typography. He of chaotic type and the pattern it embodies, abandoned the usual practice of grids and shown alongside overlapping photos, on ignored the usual publication layout style the surface it appears meaningless but creating design that were abstract, visually really holds a larger picture, evoking a range exciting and deconstructing in nature and of emotions that was done to for his own constantly stressed “Don’t mistake legibility purposes. This style got him the nicknamed for communication.� Carson went on the open, Carson Design Studio in 1995, and quickly gained a range of diverse clientele in fashion, entertainment and automotive such as Nike, Toyota and Quicksilver. It was also in 1995 that he puclished his first book The End of Print, a mongraph that celebrates and he quickly attracted a cult following, a everything about print and its processes, youthful demographic that was in awe of and is a threshold between print and the his design structure. This following got the digital age eras. attention of Nike, Levis and MTV, who saw Today, Carson is still seen as a cultural design the opportunities his designs could have on force, he has shown a new generation of advertising their products to this demographic designers that by pushing the envelope of commissioned Carson to design print design shape and appearance you can stretch ads and television commercials for them. the boundaries of visual communication. INSIDER
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Graphic design will save THE WORLD right after rock and roll DOES.
Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.
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