David Carson (born September 8, 1954) is an American graphic designer, art director and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun, in which he employed much of the typographic and layout style for which he is known. In particular, his widely imitated aesthetic defined the so-called "grunge typography" era.

 

 

 

Carson's designs were recognised as being unusual and individual towards the public, for having pictures upside down, half cut and having words overlapping the pictures. Both of these covers were taken as a close up mid shot. To obviously show the artists clothing and facial features, being quite serious and focused towards a certain direction, unlike other magazines like "Kerrang" where they have the artists facing in different directions. These models are very natural, there is not airbrushing or tweaking to the photo, it is just showing an artist looking professional. Also he includes sell lines in his covers, however the only thing he is describing is music artists that is in the issue. That and the issue number with price. "#3" presenting the fact that the issue on the right is particularly new when is was published. Both of these issues have the same masthead title, yet they are both in different fonts. Linking to Carson's individuality, all his pictures are different why not the font? In my opinion i like Carson's individuality, because its unusual it shows that these artists are natural and have raw talent. The way Carson produces his covers are eye catching, you want to read them because it is uncommon to find a picture upside down or with a quarter of his face cut off. I would personally read it because of my interest in the cover just like any of Carson's other readers.

 

 

This issue is quite different because it is a close-up shot of the artists face and it isnt cut off or rotated in any way. Just a vintage picture of an artist in dark glasses, to portray a sense of seriousness and professionalism just like the other two covers. To show the genre of Ray Gun, its not describing dance music or hip hop music its more Grunge music; heavy and loud. Appealing to only a certain audience who take an intrest in that type of genre. Once again the masthead is the same but the font is different. It's bigger and bolder, drawing more attention to this cover than any other issue. Carson's could be rebranding his magazine to see what kind of font draws the most readers. The bigger the font, the more people look at it, because of how eye catching it is. Finally the font used for the sell lines around the page is very unusal because; the reader can just about read its contents. With the letters overlapping each other and in different places around the page is to confuse the reader. The masthead alone is to gain recogntion from the reader to show what kind of genre is being advertised. However i feel with this copy they gave up, not really caring about the cover. They have a masthead a photo and some sell lines, i believe they thought thats all they needed, that the photo alone would gain readers because the would recognise the artist and gain immediate interest.

Carson uses black as a theme, black being assossiated with death, mystery and power, that is what Carson is trying to show. That RayGun has power because of the artist on the cover and whom their writing about inside the issue.

 

This particular cover i do not like, directly the font used for the sell lines. I can't read what it says and it just makes the page look cluttered. I preferred the other ones because they looked vintage and professional, yet this one looks like it was done because they had to send out another issue in a rush.