David Carson is considered by many to be one of the most influential graphic designers and typographers this world has ever seen. As founder and chief designer of David Carson Design Inc, Carson has reinvented the rules of graphic design with his chaotic typographical design style with design studios located in Delmar, California and Zurich Switzerland. Carson himself considers one of his early approaches to graphic design as being one of the most favourable from his career and this was whilst working for the experimental surfer magazine Beach Culture. Whilst working for the magazine he felt his initial training was given the chance to flourish which was recognised by the Society of Publication Designers in New York who awarded him the ‘Best Overall Design’ accolade.
Carson’s work for Ray Gun magazine in the early nineties which he believes developed a visual language for alternative music also gained international acclaim, being referred to by The American Centre for Design as being “the most important work coming out of America”. Proof of the way in which Carson revolutionised typography was found when some writers at Ray Gun who had once at the beginning complained that their articles were unreadable were now complaining that their articles were just too easy to read!
Carson’s international client list includes: American Express, Budweiser, Levi’s, MTV, Sony, Toyota, Warner Bros, Nine Inch Nails, Quiksilver, Pepsi and Xerox to name but a few.
Carson has given seminars extensively around the United States and other parts of the world, exploring elements of graphic design and typography in addition to having many books published. Some of which being The Rules of Graphic Design which he published to get the official rules of graphic design out for all to see and his first book The End of Print is considered to be one of the most influential graphic design books of all time, the bestseller which has sold over 200000 copies.
Carson believes that he earns his living through the means of his hobby and he feels extremely lucky in that sense. His design process begins by thoroughly reading through the brief, determining who the target audience is and defining the message he wants to communicate. He then waits to see where he is driven visually and emotionally. He believes that it is important as a designer to let your past experiences and upbringing influence your work, he believes that putting yourself into your work will make the process far more enjoyable and will encourage you to produce your best work.
Carson’s more recent works include magazine cover designs for Huck and Little White Lies for which it is tradition that the last two covers of the year have some form of visual resemblance to one another and in the case of the Jan/Feb 2011 issues it is Carson’s iconic twisted avant-garde typography that establishes the connection.
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