On the topic of David Carson, 

I can't image anyone not knowing who he is. For all the type students in the class if you're not familiar with his work he can  be very inspiring. He has a very untraditional approach to type.

Sometimes I think about ow lucky he was. 

Carson never went to school, he was a surfer who would design. I think when he first began designing it was in his friends surf magazines. Using only the elements he had available to him. I think he would have to design spreads, or flyers, or something in that nature.

When photos were sent to him he would use the envelope it came in, tear it up, scan it, and incorporate i in his design. He would also use the stamp, whatever, anything to make the layout look interesting.

Since he didn't have any training he just did what he thought looked goo

d. Even if it was not conventional, and even if it broke all sorts of rules.

I know I have a designs and though, "Hmmm... this wont work because there's two san serifs" or, "Oh, this will not work because I'm not using a grid system". I think that shows how talented David Carson really was. He became a very successful designer based on the fact that he just designed based on what he thought looked good. And some how achieved successful designs that were interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

Here is some examples of his work: 

Here is a spread that I designed on/for David Carson. I was required to use him as inspiration (spread). :

Later on in his career, in a spread he designed for his magazine entitled Ray Gun, he was creating a spread for a musician, or author and he thought the content of the story was so boring that he chose dig-bats as the font for the spread. I was completely il

legible.