w H o aM i id
Ray
ray gun
v a D
d
vi da
Gun on
rs
ca
Cover
Analysis
Not really knowing many artists of this genre and age I chose a cover which I believe best represented the iconic style of Ray Gun and in turn David Carson.
We see the cover utilises typography in two different ways, it is used as a title and as a texture. It has that iconic “dirty” look and is very distressed and grungy. The image too has been treated to have a very distressed look and the colour palette is very grey. This gives it a very dull feel and makes it look very old, it is also the hero of the image. This directly ties into the colour of the cover too. It uses very similar saturations of colour all very greyish. it also uses some powerful colours such as red to add a bit of pop to the image. The substrate is made to look very old and worn. It is a clear attempt at the grunge style and utilises almost old looking paper that has been printed over many times with different textures.
David Carson had only really had a taste for graphic design in a two week graphics design course at the University of Arizona. He had already graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and then soon after became a teacher while also reaching a ranking of 9th in the professional surfing scene. It wasn’t long before David found himself back with graphics design accepting an unpaid internship at Action Now magazine. He also travelled to Switzerland to attend a design workshop held by who would become his first real influence in the arts; Hans-Rudolf Lutz. Carson went on develop his own style while working art director for Transworld Skateboarding magazine; here he combined very unique photographic techniques and “dirty” type. One of Carson’s more famous designs came when he was asked to publish Beach Culture: a quarterly surf publication. Doing a two page spread covered in black for a blind surfer. He later went on to start Ray Gun a highlight of his career.