Design Firm Report – David Carson Design

David Carson Design

Dagnie Johnson
Survey of Design
Tony Dattilo

To begin with, a bit of an explanation. David Carson is the graphic designer and typography artist that basically invented the grunge style that is so constantly imitated today. A Texan born in the 1950s, he is known as the man who, as often put, “broke the rules of graphic design” to step out of the norm and create an ultimately new and unheard of style – grunge typography. He experimented with distorted and fragmented typefaces that ended up being practically illegible and altogether difficult to read. Though, they in themselves were art. The degree to which these typographic pieces were done were so extreme and unheard of that they instantly caught the eye of the world, which is why he is known to have “changed the public face of graphic design”.

Known as the “King of Grunge” these days, David Carson never actually got into graphic design until he went to a two week graphic design course that was being held at the University of Arizona back in 1983. This was followed by a second graphic design course three years later that was being held somewhere in Switzerland – this one, three weeks long. He was originally a sociology teacher and professional surfer. By chance, he had an absolute knack for graphic design that was completely unheard of. It was in the early 1990s when he worked as an art director for Ray gun, a music magazine, that he truly started receiving recognition. It was at one point that he even, in a successful attempt at going completely and utterly against the journalistic norm, printed an entire interview with Bryan Ferry in the Dingbat font. Luckily for Bryan Ferry and readers, the article was also printed in a legible font in the back of the magazine.

Being a major fan of the entire grunge style in graphic design, the first thing I noticed about David Carson’s work was definitely that it could not be read  unless I were to at some point tilt my head  to read the rest of whatever the word is. Meanwhile, his graphic pieces always have differently sized text or letters forming all kinds of gibberish scattered all over and set on top of the images, which have some kind of gruff texture on it. The pictures he uses in them usually look extremely old or worn down. At times, he would even use a slightly blurred photo, as if the photographer didn’t bother to focus his lens before taking the photo.

All of David’s pieces are very pieced together and, since every piece has some kind of difficult-to-read scrawling on it, leave you having to focus to read whatever it says. Besides being completely innovative, this is a rather ingenious design. After all, if someone has to stop and focus on something, then that means that they are spending that much more time examining whatever he made. They don’t just glance at it and say “oh, that’s nice,” and walk away. People actually stop and realize “Woah, wait, this actually says something, doesn’t it?” the moment they notice the first word. Then, their curiosity kicks in and they want to know what the entire thing says, leading them to stare at the image for quite some time until they have figured it out. They end up doing this to his logos, as well, since they are even more illegible than his general graphic print works and advertisements. People examine these pieces for long enough that they then will remember this style and/or logo, especially after how long they spent trying to decipher it.

Because of his strange and urban style, David Carson has been hired to do work for big name places and clients, such as Kodak, Fox Television, Warner Brothers, Quiksilver, AT&T, Pepsi Cola, Nike, Levi, Toyota, Nine Inch Nails,  MTV, and many more. For many of these places, he has been doing work for them since 1995, where his style was still rather unnatural. This is unlike today, where we see styles that imitate Carson’s in our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not.

In his work with Pepsi Cola, David Carson was the man who started the series of ads that showed a long paragraph of text in the shape of a Pepsi can or bottle with the red strips and about one half or a third of the logo across it. This is similar to the Coca Cola ad campaign that featured a silhouette bottle with random words describing the feelings people get when they drink the soda plastered across the silhouette and making it up. The way it differs, however, is in the Pepsi advertisements, the text actually made up an entire paragraph saying all kinds of things that relate to every part of the demographic in some way.

One that was featured around athletes and was shaped like a 2-liter bottle would say sentences starting with “I wanna,” such as “I wanna bend the rim,” “I wanna stop a slap shot,” “I wanna steal home,” etc. Another was featured around general hobbies and teen thoughts, making it rather random. It featured the same basic thing – random sentences starting with “I wanna.” This one was shaped like a classic soda bottle and featured sayings such as “I wanna tune in,” “I wanna drip dry,” “I wanna enter the 4^th dimension,” “I wanna have 500 watts per channel,” and much, much more.

All of these ads, though, had three lines that were exactly the same and were basically supposed to be the reason why you drink Pepsi above all of them, and those were “I wanna be young,” “I wanna have fun,” “I wanna drink Pepsi.” These ads David Carson created for Pepsi Cola were supposed to make it feel like people who are like us and who we can relate to drink Pepsi, then instill in our mind that if we drink Pepsi, too, then we will be a part of something. After all, we “wanna be young” and “wanna have fun.”

It was projects like these that show the true genius of the man and how, in all sorts of different forms, he is able to crawl into our brain and get us to stop and focus on his art in some way, shape, or form. Whether it is because we need to move our heads to even read what something is supposed to say, whether something just plain ‘looks cool’, or whether it’s putting a paragraph on something that we then feel the need to read, David Carson definitely knows how to get views and he makes marvelous pieces in the process. It is because of this absolute genius that he differs from other designers and why he is a graphic legend in the grunge world.

The piece I created imitating his style was inspired by this style and piece;

Mine:

Love’s /lust/ labors. – Week 10

Well, this is definitely an awkward and humorous post already…

Alright, so, this week we learned about subliminal messaging. Let me narrow that down a bit – we learned about sexual subliminal messaging. Lust. Though we don’t ordinarily realize it, we end up wanting to buy things more if it triggers that sense in our mind that makes us crave it. For instance – in commercials that are based around some kind of healthy food, it always ends up showing the girl getting somehow ‘sexier’. Such as the video of the Japanese girl who walks into the bathroom with a large belly and flat chest then proceeds to realign her fat so that she ends up with a large chest and flat stomach.
She then walks out with the “ideal” body-type of today and an image of tea pops up on the screen, followed by a narration explaining how the tea can make you lose weight.

It’s all about sex appeal.

Above: Burger King ad, Three-O ad, an ad to try and make people go vegetarian, Burger King commercial clip, Flirt Vodka ad

Museums and art I don’t understand. – Week 9

Jumping to Week 9 because we were gone on holiday for Week 8!

So, this week we had an adventure planned out that I… actually… uhm… W-well, I kind of forgot about it. S-so I kind of had to borrow money here and there to even go. Didn’t help that I had no jacket, though, so it rained like crazy on me. I had water literally dripping from my face by the end of the trip.

Anyways, we started out at the Henry Art Gallery, which, frankly, I was scared to walk through alone because the entire place was rather confusing. It took me quite a while to even realize there was a wayfinding system because the signs were placed so high, I would have to crook my neck to even see them! It wasn’t very short-friendly and seemed to expect me to look up higher than I normally have to if I expect to get around at all. Meanwhile, the art was very… creepy and… odd. Most of the exhibits made me feel kind of paranoid and fearful for some reason. They had very eerie feelings and I had to wonder why people would go to such places to begin with. I just… absolutely did not understand.

After that, we went to the Burke Museum. AKA rip-off central. It was very small and honestly not very interesting. But, there was a lot cooler stuff than at the art gallery and I never once felt creeped out while at this place. The wayfinding was, though poor outdoors since we couldn’t find the front door, not too bad. It was in places where anyone could see them and not just giants. Though, they were a tad on the gaudy side. Buuut, hey, we got around.

I get lost regardless. – Week 7

Wayfinding – that thing that is supposed to help us find our way. I mean, if you couldn’t guess by the word itself. (Which I, admittedly, didn’t initially.) Wayfinders are those big signs that are usually colored that show an arrow pointing in one general direction, then it has the name of whatever might be that way. At times, it will even have multiple things pointing in the same direction. You’re supposed to then follow it and keep your eye out for another sign directing you to where you are to go.

Sometimes it may not even have an arrow – the wayfinder may just even be a big sign with a photo of wherever you are at, or it will just say where you are currently. At times, it will even just be a picture of an unlabeled map that is split up into color regions and you are then expected to remember these colors and find another wayfinding point that matches that color and says where you are – because the map doesn’t. This is called ‘terrible wayfinding’.

Personally, I get lost no matter what. I can’t even read a map or anything, so my favorite wayfinding system is the ones like in old airports and hospitals, where you are supposed to follow the colored strips on the ground to where you are trying to go.

Those are fun.

Memes are what’re killing humor. – Week 6

It was this week in class that we discussed how quickly things can go viral and, on that note, memes. Now, the definition of meme is, and I quote, “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Internet memes are basically the exact same, except you can’t just make one and decide ‘we have to make this a meme,’ as foolish Redditors and 9gaggots seem to believe. See, this is called a forced meme.

Oh, I suppose I should have started with a little disclaimer warning that this blog is going to end up being a bit of a rant and ramble.

Now, as I was saying…

A forced meme is not a meme. This is why so many of the original forced meme attempts are known by a shrinking number of people – more than most of whom are from the original source of all of the original major memes. (i.e. LOLcats, trollface, and… well, basically every meme you see that isn’t awful.) Yes – all major memes came from one single source; an imageboard that started up in 2004 and ended up being the best and worst thing to ever happen to the internet.

A diagram of how memes get made and become viral, spawning from its original destination, then going into Reddit after everyone has already laughed about it and gotten sick of it, then into 9gag, and then out to the rest of the internet while Reddit and 9gag take credit for its creation months after it has become unfunny.

There are two things that are always said of forced memes that are what sets them apart from real memes. The copypasta of that is this:

• A: Often unfunny
• B: Not having a funny story/copypasta attached to it.

Some more notable examples of old forced memes are “Girugamesh,” “ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER!,” and “Milhouse.” I’m sure you’re asking yourself what the heck any of these are at this point to which I say – exactly. Nobody can just be like “oh, let’s make a meme.”

Memes.

Just.

HAPPEN.

Adding some kind of white text with a black stroke in Impact doesn’t make something a meme. Until people realize this, they will keep believing that websites like Reddit or 9gag are truly funny.

Back on topic, though – YouTube and the internet can make things spread majorly quickly, which is useful in the marketing industry.

Not much to say this week, so lack of a clever title. – Week 5

This week in class, Miss Lindsey Lush took some time out of her day to come in and speak to us about her successes since graduating from AI. She explained to us how she’s been working for this design firm and how she is currently working on some projects with both Taco Time and, a place which I am especially envious of, Microsoft! Yep, I definitely feel that this school can help kids become successful in what they want to do.

The future freaks me out. – Week 4

Modernism, modern era, post modernism…. Y’know, even as I try to explain these, I’ll probably mix them up, because they all sound generally the same initially. It’s the ‘modern’ part of it. I suppose we should start with ‘modernism’. Artistically, modernism is pretty abstract, being against realism. Y’know, hence why most of the art that follows this ideology ends up being stuff we look at and question why they even did it that way. It is the attempt of artists at making things look innovative, original, and all… futuristic-y and what-not.

Post Modernism, meanwhile, is how things are for us in the normal everyday life. It’s just normal stuff and styles, nothing out of the ordinary or strange-looking. Well, unless you are one to decorate your house and stuff with only modernism-y things. Then… well, disregard what I said in that case.

Tripping through the fields – Week 3 (Field Trip entry)

So, for the drill project, we thought we would create a drill with the ability to fold up for easy transport and extreme portability for smaller jobs or on-the-go projects. How the drill will actually end up looking is still a bit of a fight with ourselves since we are still in the process of a design for it. Our demographic is mainly men whose ages vary somewhere around 20/25 to about 50. Basically, the working man.

Our journey started at the military surplus store – a favorite shopping spot of mine. They have all kinds of old military gear from all over the world, including Russia, Germany, Islam… You name it. The architecture of the store was rather old and worn down-looking, as to make it look a bit more pieced together and more like it would be some kind of military bunker, being mostly wooden planks, hardwood floors, brick, etc. with a lack of bright lights. Gas masks and old uniforms and weaponry line the walls of the store as decoration, meanwhile. It’s definitely a masculine store and, seeing the kinds of items sold there, such as fold up shovels and all kinds of multitools, it definitely helped fuel our inspiration and get an idea for how some of the items that fold and double as others look and work.

Our next stop was Carhartt, which instantly greeted us with axes that were used as doorhandles. Now, I’ve known for a long time what Carhartt is and what kinds of things they sell, but, for the sake of this entry, I’m going to pretend as if it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the store before. So… This store seems like it’s for hunters and country boys. It’s definitely for the working outdoors man, for the clothing seems like it’s made for warmth and durability. It’s generally a clothing store, though they still sell some items, such as Bear Grylls multitools and knives. It matched up quite well with the feel of the surplus store and even had the same type of construction work.

Finally, we went to Filson’s. There isn’t much to say about this store, since it was basically like Carhartt, except they used hunter green more than they used tan. Regardless, this store still fit in with how the past two stores were.

Branding where it hurts. – Week 2

If anyone knows anything about the materialistic world, it is that branding is everything. This isn’t even restricted to just the fashion world, either. Most of the time, when people hear ‘brand’, they assume we mean the clothing industry – Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, Hollister, Hot Topic, Zumies… You name it. But, that would be limiting the branding term so vastly that it would be down to one miniscule section in branding existence. Branding is all around us whether we realize it or not. It makes a constant appearance in our everyday existence. Look at your phone, for instance – Android or Apple. Both are brands. Next, look at your computer – Dell, Apple, HP, Alienware, whatever.

Televisions, furniture, headphones, foods… Anything you can name – there is a brand that is known more than others for each thing. That name is what helps link our brains to these things.
So, if you haven’t guessed, branding is just a bit on the important side of life, so you might want to have a logo or name that can be recognized. Heck, go get a catchy jingle, even. Whatever helps.

 

Sometimes the way we work differs. – Week 1

The creative process in graphic design can be as vastly different as canned fruit and potato chips. If you’re not sure exactly what that means, then don’t fret, because nor do I.
I was really just trying to think up a cool metaphor.

Anyways, what I was trying to get at is that there are many different methods to go about graphic design. Such as, in a large company, there may be people that sketch up the idea, people who are the critical and judgemental group that tear the ideas apart and make them better, and people who actually turn the final idea into a reality.
Meanwhile, in the freelance world, there may just be one person who goes through the entire process in their own way. They may do all of those steps on their own, or they may just sit down, listen to music, and be inspired by that as their muse to create the graphic.

Whatever the case is, the graphic design process can be completely different from one artist to another just as style can differ.
One person may prefer logos, one may prefer graffiti, one may enjoy manipulating photos.

It all depends on who we are, how we’ve learned, what our muse is, etc.

Just as all that, this means that all of our ideas are different and therefore some ideas may be more out there than others, such as the different waypoints and advertisement styles we looked at in class.
These ideas vary person to person and the magical part is when we get to come together to take an idea to that extreme level.

5 photos: