David Carson is an American graphic designer who is best known for his progressive magazine designs and use of experimental typography. Being the most influential designer of the 90’s, many of his designs and ideas defined the “grunge” era of the decade.
Carson was born on September 8th, 1952 in Corpus Christi, TX, but has lived majority of his life in the hustle and bustle of New York City. In Carson’s youth, his father had forced the family to travel all over the country, and including places like Puerto Rico and the West Indies. These adventures affected and inspired Carson’s artwork profoundly, but it wasn’t until 1980 at the University of Arizona that he had made his first real encounter of the graphic arts for a two week course. He later attended San Diego State University and Oregon College of Commercial Art, and in 1983 was working towards his BA in Sociology. He visited Switzerland where he attended another several week course in graphic design as part of the completion of his current degree. It was during this course that he met his biggest and greatest influence; the professor of the course, Hans-Rudolf Lutz, who became one of Carson’s greatest inspirations.
After receiving his degree in Sociology, Carson taught sociology classes and worked as a professional surfer (9th best in the world) in the late 70’s. Later, he went on to art direct several music, skateboarding, and surfing magazines throughout the 80’s. During this time, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, CA. During this time, he began to really experiment with his artwork and discovered himself completely submerged in the bohemian culture of Southern California. Carson went on to art direct Transworld Skateboarding magazine. He also designed Beach Culture for Surfer magazine and this allowed Carson to make his first long-lasted mark on the universe of graphic design, and more importantly, typography. He was even called innovative by those who weren’t even found of his work. By art directing these ‘zines and the more famous style magazine Ray Gun, from 1992-1995, Carson gained world-wide attention for his signature style of using “dirty” type and non-mainstream photographic techniques and distorted and mixed typefaces that rendered most text almost illegible, but was extremely interesting and aesthetically pleasing to the ‘grunge’ fans of the 90’s. He was featured in publications such as the New York Times (May 1994) and Newsweek (1996) which gained him even more popularity as time went on.
As the times moved on, many worried as to what might happen to Carson as the approaching ‘end of print’ loomed imminently in the future and the emerging age of digital design began to leak into many of the present popular designs. So, in order to keep up with the changing times and to continue riding the wave of ever-changing graphic design, Carson shifted from surf subculture-inspired artwork to more corporate work for companies such as Nike, Levis, and Citibank. He opened up his own studio (David Carson Design in New York City) and attracted many major clients from all over the United States. During the years of 1995-1998, Carson had done work for Pepsi, Ray Ban, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, and American Airlines. He later worked with AT&T, British Airways, Kodak, Lycra, Sony, Suzuki, Toyota, WB, CNN, MTV, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, MGM Studios, and the band Nine Inch Nails. Carson opened his second studio in Charleston, SC in 2000 and he became the Creative Director of Gibbes Museum of Art in the same town.
David Carson had created an entirely new school of typography and photographically-based graphic design that revolutionized the world of graphic artistry. He inspired many young designers of the 90’s and is largely responsible for popularizing the style for not following traditional graphic design standards. Carson considers his work “explorative” of his thoughts and ideas that become “lost in the subconscious”, so he’s very emotionally attached to his work. Even though he is so deep in every piece, he still manages to convey both the idea and feeling behind the design. He inspired so many designers to completely change their methods after seeing his new use and combination of typography and photography and base their work off of the new “standards” that Carson has laid out and distinguishes in his own work. “He took photography and type and manipulated and twisted them together and on some level confusing the message but in reality he was drawing the eyes of the viewer deeper within the composition, itself.”
