Design Your Mind

Lately I have had to write a few essays that have been really bogging me down in school. Write is a very difficult thing for me to do when I find myself not interested in the subject. I was relieved to find out that my typography class' essay would be about a topic a care very much about which made it an easy essay to write. Design is something I hold dear to my heart and writing about one of my favorite designers is just something I thought would be appropriate.

-Aaron James Trigg

David Carson: Non Traditional Design

The term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. All graphic designers have there own creative way of solving the problems of visual communication. David Carson is no exception; he is one of the great designers of the time as he breaks the mold of traditional design. He is the master at creating solutions for problems that would challenge the boundaries of design and logic. He is perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the nineties. If Harry Houdini is the master of illusion in magic then Carson, for graphic design, is the master of making magic from chaos and rebellion.

David Carson is an American graphic designer who is known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. His designs are governed totally by feel and he often says he does not care about the people who do not like what he creates. If a graphic designer had to live by one quote it would be of Carson's, “...don't confuse legibility with communication just because something is legible doesn't mean it communicates. More importantly it may not communicate the right thing.” He was one of the first designers to completely shatter the rules of graphic design. Legibility was no longer the main focus of graphic design with the introduction of Carson's work. If a design could portray a feeling then the goal was met. The text no longer matter as much as the meaning that could be gained from the work.

Carson was born September 8, 1952 in Corpus Christi, Texas and has traveled much of the world. He was a very talented young artist yet his first significant exposure to graphic design education came as part of a two-week workshop in Switzerland, where the Swiss graphic designer Hans-Rudolph Lutz influenced him in the early 80's. He did also have a graphics class in 1980 at the University of Arizona but was not as influential as his later journey to Switzerland. A Bachelor of Arts in Sociology was Carson's main course of study.

Many people are astonished to find that Carson is not trained in the art of graphic design. A degree in Sociology and his professional surfing background are the only training that has acquired. All of his design work is gaged primarily on the message that he feels needs to be conveyed, nothing more. It must effectively portray the core meaning of what must be communicated for Carson. Similarly, when one knows when he or she has fallen in love Carson knows when a piece has been flawlessly executed. There could be loose ends defined by the standards of traditional design but if it does not help the meaning it is usually left as is.

In November 1995, the same year of the Oklahoma City Bombing, Carson published his first book the End of Print. It sold in five different languages over 200,000 copies and soon became the best-selling graphic design book of all time. He has gone on to publish a series of six other books: David Carson: 2nd Sight: Grafik Design After the End of Print , Fotografiks: An Equilibrium Between Photography and Design Through Graphic Expression That Evolves from Content, Surf Culture: The Art History of Surfing, The Book of Probes, Trek: David Carson, Recent Werk, and Ortlos: Architecture of the Networks, all of which are critically acclaimed and have sold very well. In addition to Carson's arsenal of great graphic design books he has also been apart of some of the most cutting edge magazines to date. He is the art director of the Transworld magazine series and was the co-founder of Ray Gun, a magazine of international standards which had music and lifestyle as its motivating subjects.

Not limited to just magazine layouts and other type oriented design, Carson has worked with major companies such as Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban, Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines, Levi Strauss Jeans, AT&T, British Airways, Kodak, Lycra, Packard Bell, Sony, Suzuki, Toyota, Warner Bros., CNN, Cuervo Gold, Johnson AIDS Foundation, MTV Global, Princo, Lotus Software, Fox TV, Nissan, quiksilver, Intel, Mercedes-Benz, MGM Studios and Nine Inch Nails. These major companies have put Carson's work on the map as some of the most innovative designs to come from America. We can only hope that he will continue to be inspired and inspire.

Here are some links that Carson is apart of:

http://www.raygun.com/