David Carson: Biography & Works

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D a vid C a r s on : B io graphy & Work s

D av i d C a r so n : B i o g r a p hy & W o r k s

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CONT ENTS A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S PA G E 7 IN T R O D U C T IO N PA G E 9 C H A P T E R O N E : B IO G R A P H Y PA G E 1 3 C H A P T E R T W O : T Y P O G R A P H Y PA G E 1 9 C H A P T E R T H R E E : S T Y L IS T IC F E A T U R E S PA G E 2 3 C H A P T E R F O U R : A R T W O R K S PA G E 2 5 B IB L IO G R A P H Y PA G E 3 5

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DAVDI

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A C K N O W LED G EM EN TS I would like to thank these people and organisations for conbributing to the creation, development, critique and publishing of this book: D avid Carson: for his inspiring avante-garde typography has influenced my personal design choices.

Lecturer: D ominique Falla Tutor: M egan H arrison O livia B eshmen: For helping create our serif font titled ‘M A O ’.

B LU R B .CO M : for publishing this book.

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INTRODUCTION

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n pursuing a career as a graphic designer, D avid Carson is able to draw on his experience as a sociology teacher and as a competitive surfer. H is move to this career field came with the training of a single design course. H e has won awards the design field for his designs and the incorporation of his photography in designs. H is work in varied mediums include print media, film, videos, and corporate design and have given him wide exposure and visibility both in the design community and to the general public.

Carson’s philosophy of design is exemplified in his work. There are no boundaries- none for images, none for text, and none for his imagination. T he individual viewing the design does not necessarily need to come away with a complete understanding of what he or she is seeing. P erhaps he or she simply needs to be drawn to it out of curiosity, out of confusion, or even out of admiration. Carson sees the value of connecting with G eneration X though his designs. Just as the boundaries are limitless, so are the possibilities in the mind of D avid Carson when it comes to his designs.

W hen B each Culture was launched, the name of art director D avid Carson became synonymous with expressionistic, subjective

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design. Since Carson is a professional surfer, this lifestyle magazine for those who think life is a beach created an empathetic response. B ut Carson’s next designing gig, the music magazine R ayG un, forced the design world to sit up and take notice, too. D ubbed everything from “enfant terrible” to “anarchic genius,” Carson prevailed. B oth B each Culture and RayG un continue to be associated with explosive magazine design.

P rimarily, Carson became known for his irreverent use of type.

H is typographical layouts were an improvisational response to the content, and since the content was tied to the hot new bands and styles of music, Carson filled R ay G un pages with excitement and freneticism corresponding to the releases. For his efforts. Carson was defined as both a “master of typography” and “the king of non-communication.”

“ th e king o f n on - comm u nica tion . ”

N ow, Carson continues his subjective interpretations of design without the hoopla. H e is based in his M anhattan studio, which remains small so that he can work on projects that he “hand picks and specifically chooses.” H e has designed a cover for a magazine focused on surfing (one of his favourite pursuits) , called Surf in R ico. Carson’s typographic cover treatment captures the glamour of the sport.

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Carson in his surfer mag office (1991)

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CHAPTER ONE: BIOGRAPHY

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avid Carson is principal and chief designer of D avid Carson D esign, Inc. with offices in N ew York City and Charleston, SC.

Carson graduated with “honors and distinction” from San D iego state university, where he received a B FA degree in sociology. A former professional surfer, he was ranked # 9 in the world during his college days. N umerous groups including the N ew York Type D irectors Club, A merican Center for D esign and I.D . magazine have recognized his studio's work with a wide range of clients in both the business and arts worlds. Carson and his work have been featured in over 18 0 magazine and newspaper articles around the world, including a feature in N ewsweek magazine, and a front page article in the N ew York Times.

London-based Creative Review magazine dubbed Carson “A rt D irector of the Era.” The A merican Center for D esign (Chicago) called his work on R ay G un magazine “the most important work coming out of A merica.” H is work on B each Culture magazine won “ B est Overall D esign” and “Cover of the Year” from the Society of Publication D esigners in N ew York. This lead to Carson's first book, with Lewis Blackwell, The End of Print,

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“ th e m os t imp or tan t work com ing o u t o f A m erica . ”

(forward by D avid Byrne) becoming the top selling graphic design book of all time, selling over 2 0 0 ,0 0 0 copies, and printed in 5 languages.

The work featured in The End of Print is the subject of various one-man exhibitions throughout Europe and Latin A merica, A sia and A ustralia. Carson's other titles include 2nd Sight, Fotografiks (with design historian Philip M eggs). H e has two recently released books, T R EK and The Book of Probes with M arshall M cLuhan. D avid is also art director for the M cLuhan estate.

Carson lectures extensively throughout the world, as well as at colleges throughout the U . S., including Cranbrook, A R Tcenter, N otre dame, R ISD and Cal A rts. H e has had numerous one man exhibitions of his work worldwide, and has spoken at over 100 professional symposiums, including “D esigner A s Editor” at the D esign Institute in A msterdam. H e teaches a week long workshop at the school of visual arts in N Y C each summer.

The International Center for Photography (N Y) singled out Carson as the “ D esigner of the Year” for his use of photography and design. Print M agazine proclaimed his work “ brilliant,” while U SA Today described it as “visually stunning,” adding that his design of Ray Gun Magazine “may actually get young people reading”.

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“Typography, a title published by Graphis magazine (N Y), lists Carson as a “ M aster of Typography.” I.D . magazine chose Carson for their list of “A merica's most innovative designers”. A feature in N ewsweek magazine said of Carson “ he changed the public face of graphic design”. The graphic design publication Emigre devoted an entire issue to Carson, the only A merican designer to be so honored in the magazine's history. In A pril 2 0 0 4 , London based creative review magazine calls D avid, “the most famous graphic designer on the planet”.

D avid recently picked up 4 gold awards at the Charleston A D DY awards, including a “ special judges award” for “professionalism”.

In the past few years, Carson has branched out into film and television to direct commercials and videos. H e directed the launch commercials for Lucent technologies and teamed up with W illiam Burroughs in Carson's short film, “The End of Print”. H e also collaborated with H arvard B usiness School professor John Kao on a documentary entitled “The A rt and D iscipline of Creativity.”

David designed the worldwide branding campaign for Miicrosoft in 199 8, as well as the worldwide advertising for Giorgio A rmani (Miilan). H e has appeared in advertisements endorsing A pple Computers, Samsung monitors and various paper companies.

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“ th e m os t fam o u s graph ic design er on th e p lan e t ”

Carson has art directed and designed Surfer, twSkateboarding, twSnowboarding, Beach Culture, and Ray Gun magazines. H e is featured in both “The H istory of G raphic D esign” by Philip M eggs, as well as”The Encyclopedia of Surfing” by M att W arsaw.

H e currently serves as Creative D irector for the G ibbes M useum of A rt in Charleston, and recently designed a special issue of Surfing M agazine titled “ Explorations” which came out in July of ‘0 4 . H e also recently directed a television commercial for the progressive U M P Q U A Bank in Seattle, W ashington.

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CHAPTER TWO: TYPOGRAPHY

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arson does not use type conventionally. N or does he use, or believe in, grids. In fact, Carson says he has to remove all guidelines before working on a page. Type is not ephemeral or decorative in his designs. Instead, Carson forges and manipulates text to evoke emotions. O ne signature of Carson design is his use of truncated letterforms and unusual spacing. T he audience is expected to get into the text and interpret the ideas. T he posters designed for his talks, for example, show a free-form use of his name, but never allow a doubt that the speaker is D avid Carson.

In the reflective treatise on his work, T he End of Print: The G raphic D esign of D avid Carson, authored by Lewis B lackwell, the individual personal design that is essentially Carson affects every page. Carson approaches type and typography expressionistically. H e expects his reader to empathise with the message. H is text is often fractured, its typefaces can be jarring (and he has created his own) , but the reader is captured and forced to respond to every word.

D avid Carson remains an icon to designers for his bravado in designing. Carson looks for “the next wave�, the unexpected.

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CHAPTER THREE: STYLISTIC FEATURES

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Bold “Saturated” Colour – Very intense to suit the sun drenched atmosphere of the subject matter and relate to trendy “pop” culture of the audience. Eye catching exaggerated colour makes life seem more intense and exciting.

D econstructed Text - overlapping, cut off by the edge of the page, different sizes, fonts, and orientations (horizontal, vertical) and can be difficult to read. The viewer has to stop and decipher what is being said so they spend more time looking at and absorbing the design.

Illegible Text - Sometimes the text is just there to for aesthetics serving a decorative rather than functional purpose.

Becomes an interesting pattern in itself with only fragments being readable. The younger audience often doesn’t need or want to read lengthy passages and is happy to get the message as “fragments” of meaning. Style more important than meaning.

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Freehand D rawing and D ecorative Patterns randomly distributed around the design to contrast with the very mechanical and formal letter forms. These give an anti-establishment effect of being free from the rules of current society.

Non-Professional Imagery – blurry, out of focus images that look like amateur photographs used. Carefully treated to heighten ambiguity and create mystery. Contrast with slick professional photos of establishment glossy magazines - youth culture antiestablishment, cool, relates to the kind of photos the audience takes themselves. Celebrates the every day life of pop culture.

Influenced by Pop A rt paintings which are deliberately informal.

Periphery – O bjects, images, and text placed on the edges of the design often going off the top, bottom and sides of the page.

D eliberately breaking the rules, informal, unexpected - symbol for design that is on the edge of acceptability - which is our youth culture revolution.

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Empty Spaces – O pen areas of negative space act as a contrast with crowded confused areas of text and image. B alance gives the eyes a place to rest when looking at the designs. H is work is symbolic for youth culture of boredom & action

H and M ade Letters – Informal, anti-establishment layouts are symbolic for freedom and breaking the rules. B ut balanced by sharp edges and elements of clean text.

Linear and G eometric Elements - These are randomly placed around the design but Carson carefully arranges the text in relation to the image and other to balance the total composition.

Text Sabotage – Filling in the enclosed areas of letters and distorting fonts as a deliberate way of making the text “wrong”.

Subversive anti-establishment act to show freedom and disrespect for established practice.

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CHAPTER FOUR: ARTWORKS

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arson was hired by publisher M arvin Scott Jarrett to design R ay G un, an alternative music and lifestyle magazine that debuted in 1 9 9 2 .

In one issue, he notoriously used D ingbat (a font containing only symbol) as the font for what he considered a rather dull interview with B ryan Ferry. ( H owever, the whole text was published in a legible font at the back of the same issue of Ray G un, complete with a repeat of the asterisk motif).

Ray Gun made Carson well known and attracted new admirers to his work. In this period, he was featured in publications such as The N ew York Times ( M ay 1 9 9 4 ) and N ewsweek ( 1 9 9 6 ).

In 19 9 5 , Carson left Ray Gun to found his own studio, David Carson D esign, in N ew York City. H e started to attract major clients from all over the U nited States. D uring the next three years ( 19 9 5 – 1 9 9 8 ), Carson was doing work for Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban (orbs project), N ike, Microsoft, B udweiser, G iorgio A rmani, N B C, A merican A irlines and Levi Strauss Jeans, and later worked for a variety of new clients, including AT&T Corporation, B ritish Airways, K odak, Lycra, Packard Bell, Sony, Suzuki, Toyota,

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W arner B ros., C N N , Cuervo G old, Johnson A ID S Foundation, and M TV just to name a few.

H e named and designed the first issue of the adventure lifestyle magazine B lue, in 1997. D avid designed the first issue and the first three covers, after which his assistant Christa Smith art directed and designed the magazine until its demise.

Carson’s cover design for the first issue was selected as one of the “top 4 0 magazine covers of all time” by the American Society of M agazine Editors.

In 2 0 0 0 , Carson closed his N ew York City studio and followed his children to Charleston, South Carolina, where their mother had relocated them.

In 2 0 0 4 , Carson became the Creative D irector of the Gibbes Museum of A rt in Charleston. That year, he also designed the special “ Exploration” edition of Surfing M agazine and directed a television commercial for U M P Q U A Bank in Seattle, W ashington.

“ u s e d D ing b a t for an in terview wi th B ryan F erry ”

In 2 0 1 0 Carson worked as worldwide creative director for Bose Corporation. H e also served as D esign D irector for the 2 0 1 1 Q uiksilver P ro Surfing contest in B iarritz, France, and designed

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the branding for the 2 0 1 1 Q uiksilver Pro in N ew York City.

H e designed a set of three posters for the San Sebastion International Film Festival in Spain and the covers for H uck and Little W hite Lies magazines. H e was featured in 2 0 1 1 in interviews in V ice magazine and M onster Children, as well as large features in Spain and Portugal’s largest newspapers.

Carson designed the cover of the summer 2 0 1 1 “Time based A rt” issue and catalogue of The Portland M ercury. H e was invited judge the European D esign Awards in London ( D D + A ) in both 2 0 1 0 and 2 0 1 1 .

Since 2 0 1 0 , he has lectured, held workshops and exhibitions across Europe, South A merica and the U nited States.

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D on't mistake legibility for communication Source: http://desinteracao.tumblr.com/post/4 2 7 3 3 7 7 1 0 5 2 /david-carson-e-o-designdesconstrucionista

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David Carson for Pepsi Source: http://phillipwhitegraphicsyear1sc.wordpress.com/2 0 1 3 /10/10/david-carson/

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D avid Carson for The M agazine Factory Source: http://aidansdesign.blogspot.com.au/2 0 1 3 /0 3 /david-carson-3 1-task- 4 _ 3 0.html

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D avid Carson for RayGun M agazine Source: http://gemwelsherblog.files.wordpress.com/2 0 1 2 / 0 1 /david-carsons- ray-gun.jpg

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D avid Carson for The M agazine Factory Source: http://aidansdesign.blogspot.com.au/2 0 1 3 / 0 3 /david-carson-3 1 -task-4 _ 3 0 .html

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D avid Carson A nti-W ar Poster Source: http://www.typography3.com/wp-content/ uploads/2 0 1 3 /0 9/David_Carson_W ar_Poster.jpg

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B IB L IO G R A P H Y Front watercol our: http://www.jim s-watercol or-gallery.com/col or_g.htm l Carson p age 8 http://images.apple.com/v/30-years/c/images/1992/hero_s tacked.jpg Carson p age 1 8 Source: http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/art-2/david-carson/ Carson in his surfer mag office (1991) p age 12 Source: http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/t/2009/09/17/david-in-his-surfer-mag-officefoto-by-art-brewer/ http://www.idesigni.co.uk/resources/graphic-design/designers/iconic-designers/410-iconicgraphic-designers-david-carson http://mhc-subjects.wikisp aces.com/file/view/David+carson.pdf http://www.davidcarsondesign.com

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