magazineApril / May 2004

magazine
April / May 2004
THE MAGZINE
DESIGN PROJE
ECT
WILL NOW STA
ART,
HELLO
{contents}
April / May 2004
{Features}
05 INSIDE DESIGN
We reveal the life of the man who changed the public
face of Graphic Design, David Carson.
11 WAR PROPAGANDA
We let you know our political views, weather you
like it or not.
17 NARRATIVE STORY
Reader’s submit birth announcements and we pick
the baby of the month.
22 MICHENER MUSEUM REVIEW
We go inside the Rock On! The Art of the Music
Poster from the 60’s and 70’s.
Baby of the month
05
25
Inside design
25 BABY OF THE MONTH
Reader’s submit birth announcements and we pick
the baby of the month.
27 MUSIC CHOICE
Music to get your groove on, as chosen by our staff.
This months selection Amon Tobin-Super Modified.
magazine
April / May 2004
editor/senior editor/associate editor ken vella
creative director ken vella
contributor ken vella
graphic designer ken vella
i wanna thank david carson
and the michener museum
for images.
look you either like this
magazine or you don’t
attention retailers email me
at kenvella@kenvella.com if
you wanna subscribe.
place
here
1.800.345.9876
david
carson
In 1956 in a small town in Texas a living legend was born, David Carson. He was an ordinary kid, doing ordinary kid stuff,
went to school then on to college and graduated with a degree in sociology. David was also an avid surfer, which brought
about the desire to travel and surf some of the great hidden spots. Many of his design influences have come from his early
expeditions while traveling around America, Puerto Rico and the West Indies. Even while traveling the world he still had
no idea that the graphic design profession existed. It was not until he was at the age of 27 that he realized his design potential and that graphic design as a profession even existed.
Prior to his venture in the design field, he was a sociology teacher. With Carson being a surfer it let him express things
directly to the sub-cultures that made up his early audience. In 1983 Carson’s first significant exposure to any graphic
design education came as part of a three-week workshop in Switzerland, where the Swiss graphic designer Hans-Rudolph
Lutz influenced him. Upon his return to the U.S David then worked in a high school near San Diego from 1982 to 1987
which was a great location for him, he could work until 3 o’clock then get out and surf blacks beach until dusk. Plus with
only a single class as training, he became art director for Transworld Skateboarding magazine where he was doing off the
wall experimental graphic design and page layout. He immediately found praise and a sort of cult following; however,
advertisers were not willing to support his radical approach to design issues. Among his abilities of art directing and designing David was also a professional surfer. His immense interest in the surfing culture persuaded him to help launch the magazine Beach Culture. Beach Culture was under the direction of Carson for three years until it ceased publication due to a
lack of advertising. Under his direction, Beach Culture won over 150 awards, including "Best Overall Design". The magazine only lasted three years but Carson’s pioneering approach to design, particularly toward typography challenged the
fundamental aspects of all design and graphic communication.
From 1991 to 1992 Carson was the art director for Surfer. He boldly changed the masthead and gave each issue’s cover a
fresh look. The straightforward styling of the covers was a strong contrast to the later How magazine covers he designed.
Here you could associate with Carson as his unique use of typography filled each cover to give an interesting introduction
to the contents. During his reign as art director for Surfer magazine Carson also started a hip rock and roll type magazine,
Raygun which he is most well known for. His design ideas were incorporated completely with the magazine. The publication had no consistent typefaces or layouts; even the masthead was recreated for each issue. The result was a magazine that
was strikingly fresh looking with every issue. Designing the first 30 issues, this magazine, aimed at the youth market with
the sub-title of the bible of music + style, received more attention for Carson’s design than for its relatively conventional
text content. During his early work with Raygun, authors would complain that their work had been destroyed illegible they
just had a hard time reading their work. After 5 or 6 issues, authors were complaining that their articles looked plain next
to others. To Carson, image and type are the medium of expression. His designs do not start out with the intention of being
illegible or hard to read. The design begins as an expression to communicate the feeling or message of the article to the
reader upon contact. It is because of this priority that the actual words of the article may be obscured, illegible, or just nonexistent. Carson is rumored to have left Raygun in 1995 after a disagreement with the publisher over a David Bowie cover
shot. Was this the real reason he left? "Well, sort of" he says, slightly uneasily. "The timing was also right. I had this great
image of Bowie's neck, and to me there was no question that it had to be on the cover. But the publisher was worried that
no one would recognize him and suggested I use a picture of his face smiling at the camera. I'd been at Raygun for three
and a half years and that was one of the few arguments we had. I've never looked back and said oh my God, I wish I was
still working at Raygun."
Carson's experimental typography had taken hold of the 90's for it played right into the generation-x vibe of many youngsters. After this very successful period of Carson’s life, his work began to attract wider audiences: it was featured by many
mainstream publications, including the New York Times in May 1994, and Newsweek Magazine in 1996. The main comments from the publications were how Carson stood out for his ability to communicate in mass-media print with a new
graphic language, one that worked on a level beyond words.
Well I could go into more detail on his biography but I will stop
it here because I have said enough to lay down the
foundation for the rest of the paper. As we all know David
Carson has stepped up typography to an unprecedented level,
obscuring words and letters to almost unreadable forms. But
for some reason the public loves it as well as I do. I will critique works from various stages of Carson’s design career,
starting with a cover from TransWorld Skateboarding magazine circa 1987. First let me say this cover is timeless, and
would fit in with today’s design style. By layering the word
skateboard gives the cover much more depth then with a flat
masthead. Using a distressed typeface gives the cover more
character and also gives the feeling that the words are painted
on the wall. Carson did not go overboard with breaking up the
type on this cover, but what he did with the type is still very
flowing and at the same time pleasing to look at. Also by hanging the question mark out on it’s own makes a bolder statement
then just having it at the end of the question.
david
carson
}
The next piece I will critique is from Raygun magazine circa
1992. This cover for Raygun number 9 is pretty dam sweet, if
we just look at the image alone for a second or two it has great
form it brings your eyes from the bottom right to the bottom
left and then back up following the swish, which then leads
you right into the name of the magazine and the issue number.
Great form was used with this image. Now if we dissect the
type, as we see the main article in this issue is Urge Overkill,
why you ask? because it is most prominent on the cover eventhough; all the other articles are written in the same typeface
and point size, you still see Urge Overkill first. As you read
down the cover Carson slowly loosens up the type to travel
horizontally across the cover then back to its normal position
bringing the reader playfully across the cover.
david
carson
}
Onto the 3rd piece, a poster designed for a Quiksilver surfing
event, circa 2003. This poster has movement, alot of movement to it not only because you have an image of a surfer and
a massive wave crashing, but because of the rhythm of the
color surrounding surrounding the image and the way the
image is used as a chopped up border. The use of negative
white space , image and yellow form the movement around the
poster along with the steady connection and flow of the type.
I also feel it is key that the word invitational is broken up, it
brings the reader down to the body copy of the poster where
important information is being conveyed. carson also adds a
playful touch of hand drawing to the poster, which to me
reflects the Hawaiian culture.
david
carson
}
The 4th and final critique is on a new piece of work, Trek a
new book designed by Carson includes recent photographs
and of course his off the wall design methods circa 2004. If I
glance at this book cover I would be able to tell it was from
Carson and if it was not it was surely from someone who was
influenced a great deal by his work. When I look at this cover
I get a feeling of an Asian design influence, why, well maybe
it is the stars and the way the images are formed or because I
know he has 2 Japanese designers working for him, I am sure
it is the later. Anyway this new work looks very exciting colorful and fresh, maybe that is what we all needed, was not to
see a book from Carson in 5 years so we can enjoy his new
style. And with that I close my paper by saying, Trash is what
some people think of when they look at one of David Carson’s
page designs: the seeming carefree mixture of font faces and
sizes, the wildly unconventional layout, the negative leading
and textual overstrike are enough to drive a traditional typographer crazy. For those who believe that type exists to honor
content and never call attention to itself, Carson is a heretic.
But for many others, the man is a source of inspiration.
david
carson
This advertisement paid for by the supporters of www.moveonpac.org
Anti-War propaganda
Sons and daughter’s and mother’s and father’s and brother’s and sister’s and
aunt’s and uncle’s all for what? At this poimt I think it is for OIL, oh and at
the point I was earlier too.
?WAR
start narrative}
experimental narrative_
analysis of how
comic books,
children’s books,
graphic novels and
magazines
combine
words & images
to tell a story
and convey meaning
the end
michener
museum >
rock on! the art of the music poster from the 60s and 70s
Rock On! the art of the music
poster from the 60s and 70s
Rock On! the art of the music
poster from the 60s and 70s
February 7 through May 23, 2004
Wachovia Gallery
Now for my take on the exhibit. I happen to love it,
this is the kind of graphic design that we all aspire to
do, fun, fresh and colorful, seems almost like the artsists had creative license to do whatever they wanted.
All the posters eventhough very different have the
same feeling, fun and free. Seeing this kind of design,
gives you hope if you are an up and coming designer,
most designers get stuck doing boring corporate bill
paying design, which can get old real quick. Having
the opportunity to desigm such posters is totally cool.
Each poster is uniquely different but they all give the
same feeling, free a world that has no boundries or
limitations. The colors and imagrey is so powerful, an
provoking, plus some of the designs had sparked a
new type of art form, sort of based on the dada art culture, but loosely interpeted to be poster art.
This exciting exhibition features more than 100 posters
from music icons of the 1960s and 70s. The images are
recognizable to anyone who has ever hung a poster
under a black light in their room: The Beatles, Bob
Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie,
Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Genesis, the Grateful
Dead, Santana… to name only a few.
The images were created by some of the most talented
graphic artists of the time, including Milton Glaser,
Peter Max and Rick Griffin. The musicians and bands
featured in these images–and the design concepts pioneered by the artists who created them–had an impact
on popular culture far beyond the music world and continue to influence musicians, artists and designers
today.
Drawn from the permanent collection of the Southern
Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, Pennsylvania,
from a major donation by concert photographer Mark
del Costello, these posters capture an era when pop art,
culture and music intersected in a way that literally
changed the world.
This gallery exhibit is definately an eye opener into
creative design for all those who go see it. And I recommend going to visit the museum and checking out
all the exhibits.
}
birth
announcement
amon
tobin
super
modified >
The latest CD release by Amon Tobin
Super Modified
hello my name is ken vella
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