David Carson is perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the 1990’s. He has done work for the likes of Levi’s, Quicksilver, Nike, Yale University and more recently Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. However Carson did not set out in life wanting to be a graphic designer.
It was Carson’s interest in surfing which helped him breakthrough into the world of design, However, it was Carson’s work with Ray Gun magazine which provided him with the greatest recognition and earned him the unofficial title ‘Godfather of Grunge’. It was at Ray Gun that he was able to experiment with his own style of design, recognized now as ‘dirty’ type, which he could share with a much larger audience.
About the design, he has used the Gestalts principle of proximity on texts and typography, repetitions and similarity on the curly brackets, the plus signs, and few other symbols. We can see some groupings of the texts and different elements. There is a kind of closure going on with the text group on the left side. He has used the golden section where the warm and cool color separate. The text on the left also follows the golden section curve. He has used complementary colors for the design and as already mentioned the warm and cool color tone combination.
The overall design is very visually appealing and consistent as the design is separated into two parts. The cover looks calculative, complex, and professional as there are uses of numbers and mathematical symbols.
Carson’s style complied with none of the standard practices of typography, abandoning all forms of grid systems and ignoring columns, headings, and even page numbers for that matter. His designs were rarely legible, provoking the audience’s eye to study his work in greater detail and really take in what they were observing.
The designer might have used the golden section to separate the top and bottom parts of the design and the text on the right side. This design has the gestalts principle of containment for the top right and grouping for the text. The rule of third is more likely used for the surfer placement in this design. The design is a cool color tone and uses analogous and neutral colors of the text and background. The overall design is visually appealing as it has an interesting background of a person surfing, there are big eye-catching letters and numbers which are placed randomly but still readable and easy to understand.
This is a completely different type of design as it only uses 2 neutral colors for the color composition and has a sort of clean look compared to the previous designs even when there are quite a few elements. We can clearly see the gestalts theory of containment for the top title section. There is similarity and grouping of text in the middle of the design as the font is the same and is closely consistently placed.
The overall design is quite appealing as there is a beautiful face of a lady as a background and the design is pretty simple, consistent, and professional. The falling feather adds some more mood to the design as it together with the pretty lady metaphorically refers to the black swan which is mentioned as the main subject of the magazine issue.
This design is more of a vibrant and random looking. This design uses a complementary color combination. Almost all of the colors look tint and washed which gives a fresh, light, and faint mood to the design.The Golden section is used to separate the top and mid plus bottom of the magazine. But the rule of third is more likely used to place the face kind of figure in the design.
The overall design is vibrant, visually appealing due to bright and light colors and multiple element. It’s a little struggle to see the text clearly but still we get the concept.
Carson is a truly inspiring role model, not only for budding graphic designers but for anyone striving to be the best in their field. In a Layer magazine interview with Carson, he is recorded saying,
“Do what you love, trust your gut, your instincts, and intuition” and goes on to finish the interview by saying “So find that thing, whatever it is, that you love doing, and enjoy going to work for, and not watch the clock or wait for weekends and holidays.”
Nearly twenty years on, Carson’s distinctive ‘grunge’ style is still being emulated amongst the designers of today and I can only assume it will continue for many years to come.
Nice aeticle.
wow.. pretty good read.