Legibility /Communication
David Carson
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Legibility /Communication A little about David Carson’s journey, philosophy, and why you should be a little more like him.
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To see more visit davidcarsondesign.com
Recognized for breaking the rules, nearly untethering legibility from communication and inspiring a generation of young designers with his bold understanding of cultural style.
is
David Carson ?
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This is David Carson
David Carson, American graphic designer, whose unconventional style revolutionized visual communication in the 1990s. Born on September 8, 1955, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States. Carson attended Cocoa Beach High School, was class president for 3 years, and still considers Cocoa Beach, Florida to be the place he is “most from”.
Also David Carson
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He attended San Diego State University graduating with “Honors and Distinction” a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. Carson’s first contact with graphic design was in 1980 at the University of Arizona during a two-week graphics course, taught by Jackson Boelts. From 1982 to 1987, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. During that time, he was also a professional surfer, and reached a 9th in the world ranking. Carson had his own signature model surfboard with Infinity surfboards, and his own signature model fin with rainbow fin co.
“American Graphic Designer, Art Director and Surfer.� In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California. He attended the Oregon College of Commercial Art, only for a couple months before accepting an unpaid internship with Action Now magazine. That year, he went to Switzerland to attend a threeweek workshop in graphic design. The teacher of the workshop, Hans-Rudolf Lutz, became his first great influence. He then spent four years as a part-time designer for the magazine Transworld Skateboarding, which enabled him to experiment. That year, he went to Switzerland to attend a threeweek workshop in graphic design. The teacher of the workshop, Hans-Rudolf Lutz, became his first great influence. He then spent four years as a part-time designer for the magazine Transworld Skateboarding, which enabled him to experiment.
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His characteristic chaotic spreads with overlapped photos and mixed and altered type fonts drew both admirers and detractors. Photographer Albert Watson, for example, declared, “He uses type
the way a painter uses paint, to create emotion, to express ideas.”
Others felt that the fractured presentation obscured the message it carried. In 1989 Carson became art director at the magazine Beach Culture. Although he produced only six issues before the journal folded, his work there earned him more than 150 design awards. By that time, Carson’s work had caught the eye of Marvin Scott Jarrett, publisher of the alternative-music magazine Ray Gun, and he hired Carson as art director in 1992.
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In 1989 Carson became art director at the magazine Beach Culture. Although he produced only six issues before the journal folded, his work there earned him more than 150 design awards. By that time, Carson’s work had caught the eye of Marvin Scott Jarrett, publisher of the alternative-music magazine Ray Gun, and he hired Carson as art director in 1992. Over the next three years, with the help of Carson’s radical design vision, Ray Gun’s circulation tripled. Carson’s style of typographic experimentation influenced the development of the deconstruction style of design and a whole new generation of designers. The experiments by Carson and other Ray Gun designers were chaotic, abstract and distinctive, but sometimes illegible. The magazine’s radical subject matter often related to music and pop culture icons and the magazine became a reliable source for the prediction of up-and-coming stars.
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In 1995 Carson produced The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson (revised edition issued in 2000 as The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson), the first comprehensive collection of his distinctive graphic imagery. This was followed by the boldly experimental books 2nd Sight from 1997 , Fotografiks in 1999, and Trek in 2003.
He
books e m o s wrote
From 1995 to 2003, Carson ran his own studio in New York City, working with diverse clients in the worlds of fashion, entertainment and beyond, includingNike,Toyota,Quiksilver and MTV. Since then, he has served in a variety of positions, including creative director for the Bose Corporation. His legendarydisregardforreaderly conventions has made him a hero to some and an agent of ugliness to others.
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This is
"I try to reinforce visually whats written, spoken or sung. I want the work to connect with people on an emotional level, which is where I feel it's mostly effective and lasting". �
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what is his
Phil o so p h ? y
“Just because some– thing is legible, it doesn’t mean it com mu– ni–
cates. More importantly, it doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”
communicate
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Carson rejects design conventions; grid formats, information hierarchy and consistent layouts. Carson’s unorthodox graphic style played a major role in his success in the design world. His sense of typography is original and unique in a way that he does not follow the basis of communication design. For example, his arrangement of text is not what we would normally see which is in order but positioned in disarray creating chaos and confusion which is new and refreshing. His use of interesting visual simultane-
ously with typography creates an out of the ordinary design where sometimes the images are deliberately obscuring the text that goes with it and occasionally creating an unfinished sentence or word. Simplicity runs through Carson’s veins where “less is more”. Minimalism functions in his design where there are no extreme effects that would overpower his intention. His aim is to put everything out front in candor. The American Center for Design (Chicago) called his work on Ray Gun magazine “the
most important work coming out of America” while USA Today described it as “visually stunning,”
adding that his design of Ray Gun Magazine “may actually get young
people reading again.”
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Legibility is the basis for something to not only be readable but also understood and therefore communicated. Conversely, ifcommunication is the goal then the aim is more than just making something legible. Therefore, this presents arguments for and against the statement Carson makes, defining and explaining the terms of legibility and communication, and to document the social and historical context behind Carson’s statement. To begin, when something is being communicated it can be received by the audience visually, verbally, nonverbally or in its written form. The field of Graphic Design is visual communication as it attempts to incorporate and infer these elements through designs.
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The primary goal of the designer is to communicate a message. However it is more important to communicate the right thing. But
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"I'm a big believer in the emotion of design, and the message that's sent before somebody begins to read, before they get the rest of the information."
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Just because something’s legible, doesn’t mean it communicates, and more importantly doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing. If something is a very important message, and it’s said in a boring, nondescript way, then the message can be lost.
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why should
care ? you
"I think it's really important that designers put themselves into the work. No one else has your background, upbringing, life experiences, and if you can put a bit of that into your work, two things will happen: 1. You will do your best work 2. You will enjoy the work more."
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Reducing extraneous cognitive load and creating clean, straight forward design should be an easy and positive message to the viewer, correct? False. Studies demonstrate that people’s retention of material across a wide range of subjects and difficulty levels can be significantly improved in naturalistic settings by presenting reading material in a format that is slightly harder to read. The potential for improving educational practices through cognitive interventions is immense. If a simple change of font can significantly increase readers performance and memory retention, one can only imagine the number of beneficial cognitive interventions waiting to be discovered. Fluency demonstrates how we have the potential to make big improvements in the performance of our students and education system as a whole.
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Folowing a strict grid and not allowing yourself as a designer to make intuitive decisions, is what is killing graphic design. People are allowing the software to set up grids and line everything up automatically. Designers are not making any decisions, they’re not using their own eye. Grids have no use, other than for speed. This is why graphic design is in a stagnant place right now. By allowing yourself to break the rules, you are using them to your advantage. This creates a room for innovation and design that only contains but becomes its information. Online design resources has made things less experimental, less memorable, less unique and less effective. its homogenized the work overall and made it easier to forget, design now has less impact. People read what they’re interested in reading.
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" I think you do a real disservice to the writer and the reader if you don't make the ``````design engaging... It's always been hard to get somebody to jump into a gray page of type regardless of how well it's written."
Design is currently in a place where it aims to be easy to understand, with standardized system design for platforms. The effect is that things get glossed over. People aren’t drawn in. Everything begins to look the same. There are no visual clues that this is something special, or that you really need to read this. Designers seem to have gotten really lazy. But there are some signs that people are yearning again for a little more expressive experimentation, rather than perfect and boring. It’s not going to be enough to just write a great paper or paragraph about your argument.
You have to appeal to people on an emotional level initially, and that’s where graphic design can play a big part.
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So, always remember...
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You, as a designer, can help somebody dive in where, hopefully, they are rewarded with a good story. Follow David Carson’s advice. Learn a thing or two from his work. You don’t have to imitate what he does, break all the rules nor make things illegible. But, take a risk. Try something new. Experiment with new techniques. Go way beyond your comfort zone. Learn how to design with your soul rather than follow trends that come and go. Like he said, you are the only one with your background, upbringing, and experiences. These are the qualities that make you unique, and these same qualities is what will make you a great designer.
Legibility /Communication