Sunday 3 May 2009

LECTURE BY DAVID CARSON









David Carson is a graphic designer who I happened to stumble across by accident. The thing that made him stand out for me was that his work isn't all perfect, simplified and boring like I find a lot of graphic design is. Carson uses a lot of typography but he plays with the text and comes up with unusual compositions and ways of getting his message across. He also uses a lot of found material, photography and drawing to make his work exciting, busy and interesting.
The link below is to a video of a talk given by David Carson where he talks about his work and about graphic design as a whole. He is very funny when you watch him in real life and his humour also comes through in his work, especially when he fully explains everything. He speaks about good and bad graphic design and uses the quote "don't mistake legibility for communication", saying that just because something is legible doesn't mean it communicates anything properly. This is true and when I heard this it made me want to listen to him carefully. He also said that the only way to be original is to take inspiration from yourself and your upbringing because you are the only person that has lived your life and there will be things there that nobody else would think to do.
Carson is one of the best graphic designers I have come across in the past few years because his work does not feel like steriotypical graphic design. His collages remind me almost of the work of Eduardo Paolozzi in the way that both designers make busy, crowded compositions with lots of things going on and with a lot of energy. Carson though focusses mainly on type though whereas Paolozzi focussed more on the illustrative side of design.

This video of David Carson is well worth watching if you have any interest in graphic design at all. It is very interesting and informative as well as being very funny.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFpANOqSdi8

No comments: