publications: designer series
David Carson, the infamous designer behind Ray Gun magazine, changed the landscape of typography and design simply by breaking the rules. An innovator and inspiration to many, Carson’s work has inspired me since my early days of design.
research
David Carson’s work often represents himself. One of the most interesting things about Carson, in my opinion, is his love of surfing. In many of his designs, you can find waves or water, and lots of blue and red.
I wanted to create a publication that represented Carson while staying true to my own design style. I’m no master, so breaking rules I have yet to learn didn’t seem beneficial to me. Instead, I decided to stick with simple columns and focus on type, color, and graphic elements.
After reviewing his portfolio, I had a clear vision in mind and began sketching layouts, browsing fonts, and pairing colors.
design
For this project, I chose a piece of Carson’s work from his collection for the Kill the Fin Trade campaign. This campaign advertises against the overfishing of sharks. This piece contained similar red and blue colors from his other works and still had the ‘surfer’ vibe I was aiming for.
I decided to go with a simple sans serif typeface for the header and body text since he uses sans serif typefaces in many of his designs. I integrated the colors from his work in the title and around the edges with the paper ‘tears’. I thought these were a nice finishing touch as it’s not what you’d expect to see, and that’s what David Carson is all about!
In the end, I was proud of this design, and felt that I effectively meshed our styles into one beautiful publication.