David Carson - graphic designers

Graphic Designers & Practitioners - Their work philosophies & influences

One of his quote has sparked my interested as a designer because it has an important value and meaning behind it. Therefore, as a designer I always need to put in effort and strive for the the best in whatever I do. Moreover, his design creativity has challenge and inspire me to be different and go beyond my boundary in order to achieve a good design with meaning. Thus, by exploring more mediums this will enhance my design standards.

"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; you'll enjoy the work more and you'll do your best work" - quote from David Carson

To begin with, David Carson is a prominent contemporary graphic designer and art director. His unconventional and experimental graphic style revolutionised the graphic designing scene in America during 1990s. In addition, he was the art director of the magazine Ray Gun, in which he introduced the innovative typographies and distinct layouts. Not only that, he also claimed that he is the godfather of ‘grunge typography’ which he employed perpetually in his magazine issues. (Carson, n.d.)

Furthermore, Carson has a unique ability to transform the norm of conventional magazines by experimenting with different varieties of mediums, which make him so famous in his career. (Ganjieyin, 2015.)

Another important aspects was 'Grunge typography'. So what is it about? It is an overlooked blip in the timeline of visual communication. In addition to that, it is one of the most important categories of the type. David Carson, the "Godfather of Grunge," was the Kurt Cobain of the visual world, forgoing guitars and drums for gutters and Dingbats, encouraging young designers to put as much personality into their work as possible. Expression at the time was a backlash, a revolt against the consuming hyper-cleanliness of current design. (Palladino, 2013.)

Dingbats typeface have a long history spanning back to the letterpress, when typesetters used them to make printed material easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing by breaking up the page. As time progressed, Dingbats became available digitally as complete typefaces. In the field, the use of the typeface became increasingly notable when David Carson converted an entire interview for a magazine into ITC Zapf Dingbats. (Griffin, 2016.)

Dingbats have been used to implement the elegant way-finding solutions, useful for communicating concise information rapidly. The pictograms work seamlessly with font as they were designed alongside each other, with the stroke weight matching the typeface weights- similar to how the original Dingbats were constructed to match the point size of type in typesetting. The use of Dingbats in way-finding is a contemporary and seamless solution to signage. The fixed width and height of the pictograms; corresponding with the sister typeface results in a modern and clean appearance. (Griffin, 2016.)

David Carson design philosophy is all about breaking the rules. He always change the public views on graphic design and commercial art. He would describe his style as a very anarchist style in the 90’s. His philosophy is the way he comes up with his ideas and creates his work. Before starting a design, he’ll read through the article, analyse the product and listen to the music. As a consequence, he gets a feel for what the topic is and tries to crate that visually and emotionally through his art and typography. (Ganjieyin, 2015.)

One of Carson's work was Ray Gun magazine, he designed and become well known for his experimental, deconstructive typographic designs and art direction. The magazine’s contents were music artists, pop culture, lifestyle, advertising, celebrity icons and others more. He was successful in his aim to design it accordingly. In addition, he became popular for his designs Ray Gun which was the peak of his design career and he started attracting many new admirers to his work. (Todorova, 2013.)

Another successful project that David Carson’s did was The Book of Probes. Design Legend David Carson Brings Marshall McLuhan's "Probes" to Life. All in all, he uses unpublished photos from his earlier work and computer manipulated imagery in order to visually present 400 pages, each page containing one “probe” – Marshall McLuhan’s aphorisms, quotes from his books, lectures, articles and etc. What makes this partnership so interesting and unique is that ‘this collaboration creates a reciprocal and complementary tension between McLuhan’s words and Carson’s images’, according to the editors of the book. (Todorova, 2013.)

In conclusion, I hope I can be an excellent designer that design projects with meanings, which contributes largely to the society. As a designer, I always need to be creative and go beyond my creativity and imaginations when it comes on generating idea. Therefore, I need to work extra hard and think rationally when designing a project - not just design for the look but with meanings.

---

Reference & citation

"Famous Graphic Designer" (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/david-carson

Ganjieyin (2015, March 15) found that "Design Theory & Computer Design Context." Retrieved from https://ganjieyin.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/david-carson/

Palladino (2013, December 27) found that "Angst, imagination, and the Ray Gun Effect: a history of grunge typography." Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/27/5247944/the-awl-history-of-grunge-typography

Griffin (2016, Feb 8) found that "Dingbats in Communication." Retrieved from https://medium.com/@JordanGriffinTypography/dingbats-in-communication-9f044f206254#:~:text=In%20the%20field%2C%20the%20use,Bryan%20Ferry%20much%20more%20interesting.

Todorova (2013, Oct 16) found that "DAVID CARSON – THE FATHER OF GRUNGE." Retrieved from https://nvtodorova.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/david-carson-the-father-of-grunge/