Monday, March 21, 2011

David Carson: contribution to typography (MAAADDII)

"DAvid carson continues to be one of the world's most
distinctive typographic voices--
much intimidated, but never matched"_ Ellen Lupton, ID mag, Nyc

"He significantly influenced a generation to embrace typography as an expressive medium"
- steven heller 2010

As one of his first projects
Steve and Debbee Pezman, publishers
of Surfer magazine 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). ....? 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.

“The message that the type sends, I feel, is as important as what it is saying. When those work together, you’ve got really strong communication.”- David Carson

Carson chooses to use type as an expression
to communicate the feeling or message of
a piece to the viewer on first contact.
Though his work often appears illegible,
the strength of his communication and
experimentation in graphic design has
won him over 170 awards and he is
considered the grandmasters of
experimental typography to this day.
When looking at an array of David
Carson’s work, one can immediately
see how consistently he applies this
sense of expression. Each piece,
though uniquely different, seems
to work together visually as a collective whole.

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