Surfer Dude turned Design God

David Carson, sometimes referred to as the Godfather of Grunge Typography, is considered to be one of the world's most influential graphic designers. He has a unique, intuition-driven way of designing everything from magazines to television commercials for clients like American Express, AT&T, Levi's, Budweiser, Atlantic Records, Sony, MTV, Warner Bros., David Byrne, Nine Inch Nails, and Xerox, to name just a few.

Although he was a professional surfer in his early years (and continues to surf as a hobby), he turned to graphic design in 1983 while teaching sociology at a high school in Del Mar California.
He became renowned for his inventive design style in the 1990's, especially for surfing magazines and the music magazine Ray Gun.

According to Ellen Lipton of ID Magazine-
"David Carson continues to be one of the world's most distinctive typographic voices-- much imitated, but never matched."

Steven Heller says, "He significantly influenced a generation to embrace typography as an expressive medium."

Carson has studios both in the US and in Zurich, Switzerland where he continues to uphold his reputation for "breaking the rules" of graphic design.

His advice for design students:

"Do what you love, trust your gut, your instincts, and intuition.  And remember the definition of a good job: If you could afford to, if money wasn't an issue, would you do the same work? If you wouldn't, what's the point? You're going to be dead for a long time. So find that thing, whatever it is, that you love doing, and enjoy going to work for, and not watch the clock or wait for holidays and weekends."

Visit David Carson's website here: http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/t/