David Carson

 

 

 

David Carson's

 

David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun, in which he employed much of the typographic and layout style for which he is known. In particular, his widely imitated aesthetic defined the so-called "grunge typography" era.

Timeline

1980: Carson's first contact with graphic design was in 1980 at the University of Arizona during a two-week graphics course, taught by Jackson Boelts.

 

1983: In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California.

 

1987: He was also the art director of a spinoff magazine, Transworld Snowboarding, which began publishing in 1987.

 

1992: Carson was hired by publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett to design Ray Gun, an alternative music and lifestyle magazine that debuted in 1992.

1995: In 1995, Carson left Ray Gun to found his own studio, David Carson Design, in New York City.

1998: In 1998, Carson worked with Professor John Kao of the Harvard Business School on a documentary entitled The Art and Discipline of Creativity.

 

 

 

Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992 in Santa Monica, California. Led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result was a chaotic, abstract style, not always readable, but distinctive in appearance.