David Carson (graphic Designer) - Career

Career

From 1982 to 1987, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California. By the late 1980s he had developed his signature style, using "dirty" type and non-mainstream photographic techniques.

Carson went on to become the art director of Transworld Skateboarding magazine. Among other things, he was also a professional surfer, and in 1989 Carson was qualified as the 9th best surfer in the world. Steve and Debbee Pezman, publishers of Surfer magazine (and later Surfers Journal) tapped Carson to design Beach Culture, which evolved out of a to-the-trade annual supplement; the new, quarterly publication was called Beach Culture. Though only six quarterly issues were produced, the tabloid-size venue—edited by author Neil Fineman—allowed Carson to make his first significant impact on the world of graphic design and typography—with ideas that were called innovative even by those that were not fond of his work, in which legibility often relied on readers' strict attention (for one feature on a blind surfer, Carson opened with a two-page spread covered in black). A stint at How magazine (a trade magazine aimed at designers) followed, and soon Carson was hired by publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett to design Ray Gun, a magazine of international standards which had music and lifestyle as its subject. Not afraid to break convention, in one issue he used Dingbat as the font for what he considered a rather dull interview with Bryan Ferry. (However, the whole text was published in a legible font at the back of the same issue of RayGun, complete with a repeat of the asterisk motif). Ray Gun made Carson very well known and attracted new admirers to his work. In this period, publications such as the New York Times (May 1994) and Newsweek (1996) featured Carson and increased his publicity greatly. In 1995, Carson founded his own studio, David Carson Design, in New York City, and started to attract major clients from all over the United States. During the next three years (1995–1998), Carson was doing work for Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban (orbs project), Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines and Levi Strauss Jeans, and later worked for a variety of new clients, including AT&T Corporation, 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. He, along with Tina Meyers, designed the "crowfiti" typeface used in the film The Crow: City of Angels. He named and designed the first issue of the adventure lifestyle magazine Blue, in 1997. David designed the first issue and the first three covers, after which his assistant Christa Smith art directed and designed the magazine until its demise. Carson's cover design for the first issue was selected as one of the "top 40 magazine covers of all time" by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

In 2000, Carson closed his New York City studio and followed his children, Luke and Luci, to Charleston, South Carolina where their mother had relocated them. In 2004, Carson became the Creative Director of Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, designed the special “Exploration” edition of Surfing Magazine, and directed a television commercial for UMPQUA Bank in Seattle, Washington.

Carson claims that his work is "subjective, personal and very self indulgent".

Carson's work is familiar among the generation that grew up with Ray Gun Magazine, and in general, the visually savvy MTV generation. 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. Steven Heller, of the New York Times book review and numerous books on design, said “He significantly influenced a generation to embrace typography as an expressive medium” while design educator and historian Ellen Lupton said after the release of Davids 4th book Trek. "David Carson continues to be one of the worlds most distinctive typographic voices--much imitated, but never matched" (ID Mag.nyc). AIGA (the American Institute of Graphic Arts) called Carson "our biggest star". The magazine Eye (london) produced a graphic chart showing Carson to be the most 'googled' graphic designer ever.

Carson continues to lecture extensively throughout the world, including in 2010/11".

in 2010 Carson worked as worldwide Creative Director for Bose Corporation. He also served as Design Director for the 2011 Quiksilver Pro Surfing contest in Biarritz, France, and designed the branding for the 2011 Quiksilver Pro in New York City. He also designed a set of three posters for the San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain and the covers for Huck and Little White Lies magazines. He was featured in 2011 in interviews in Vice magazine and Monster Children, as well as large features in Spain and Portugal's largest newspapers. Carson designed the cover of the summer 2011 "Time based Art" issue and catalogue of Mercury mag in Portland, Oregon. Carson has been invited to judge the Europena Design Awards in London (DD+A) in both 2010 and 2011. Since 2010, he has lectured, held workshops and exhibitions in France, Portugal, Madrid, San Sabastion, Los Angeles, Novi Sad, Serbia, Ukraine, Sweden, London, Argentina, Brazil, India, Chile, Germany, Italy, Australia, and various states in the U.S.