DAVID CARSON - Critical Account
David Carson
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David Carson, born September 8th, 1955 in Texas, U.S.A., is a graphic designer renowned for his unconventional style which revolutionised the art world in the 1990’s. Carson discovered his passion for design at the age of 26 when, in 1983, he travelled to Switzerland and attended a three-week graphic design workshop, exposing him to the works of Hans-Rudolf Lutz, his first major influence. Carson worked for multiple different magazines in the span of eleven years, before being employed as art director of alternative-music magazine Ray Gun in 1992. By then, he had already earned over 150 awards for his work in design. Carson has worked with multiple corporations such as Nike, Microsoft and Pepsi Cola, and his controversial designs made him one of the most relevant and influential visual designers of the century.
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In 1994, during his commission with Raygun, Carson spotlighted himself when he published an entire interview with English singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry in Zapf Dingbats, a typeface completely made up of symbols rather than letters. The exact intentions behind this decision were never made public, however it is believed that Carson was bored by the content in the interview and didn’t think the readers would be interested. The finished design of this article rebels against traditional conventions, sparking a large amount of publicity, as it supports Generation X’s desires to stand out and go against mainstream designs.
Symbols, icons and pictures are one of the earliest forms of written communication in the world, however, in modern society, they are only utilised for decoration in visual design. The body of text in this 1994 issue of Raygun, appears in the typestyle Zapf Dingbats, which is a universally unaccessible language, as it is comprised of symbols and shapes, so therefore, anyone and everyone who reads the article is put on the same playing field of understanding. Postmodern artists, like Carson, are mainly characterised by their desire to corrupt and challenge perceptions of art, in order to bring conventional art down from it’s pedestal. This particular spread is indicative of Carson’s belief that art and visual communication can easily be more expressive and engaging than literary content.
One thing that made Carson distinguishable from other visual designers at the time, was his rejection of traditional design conventions. He said, “Having a degree in sociology and not design, I never learned all the things I wasn’t supposed to do, so I just did what made sense to me.” Raygun, as a result, was exceedingly experimental and intuitive and had no consistent structure or format, supported by the 1994 issue where Bryan Ferry’s interview was converted into a Zapf Dingbat typeface. Though the magazine spread is asymmetrical, there does appear to be balance in the overall composition. There is an equal amount of information on both pages, given in text and images, and an equal amount of white space left over. The contrast between the black text and white background harmonises with the large overlapping grey box, which conjoins the picture of Bryan Ferry to the article, linking it together and balancing out both pages.
Carson uses colour in this spread to suggest ideas about his experience with interviewing Bryan Ferry. In the picture of Ferry, he is sitting alone, with his leg over the arm of the chair, looking away from the camera, in a pose of arrogance and smugness. This is accompanied by a bright green background, which attracts attention immediately. This suggests that he isn’t very welcoming as the colour green is often associated with wickedness and bad personality traits, particularly in animations and other visual designs. There is also a red fan-shaped symbol that overlaps the picture of Ferry and most of his name. This implies a tension between Carson’s artistic choices and conventional magazine spread designs, as the red dominates over the green. In a way, Carson is claiming through this spread that these symbols are more interesting and deserve more attention than the subject himself.
In conclusion, David Carson’s controversial and unconventional work in visual design made him one of the most revolutionary designers in the 1990’s and significant figures in the postmodern movement. His stylistic choices are cleverly balanced, and have a great use of symbols and colour to enhance his intentions and the content in the article.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Moody, Larissa. "Deconstructing Magazine Typographic Design." Chapter 3 - Deconstructing Magazine Typographic Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2016.
Muzzarelli, Laura. "David Carson." Prezi.com. N.p., 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 July 2016.
Shetty, Sharan. "The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography." Medium. The Awl, 21 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 July 2016.
Westgate, Aaron. "An Interview with David Carson." Layers Magazine. Layersmagazine.com, 08 Nov. 2007. Web. 21 July 2016.