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Private Notes
David Carson is a groundbreaking, award-winning graphic designer. In his first lesson, you’ll get to know David’s creative, prolific work and how this class aims to challenge predictable design.
David introduces some of his guiding principles. He encourages you to rely on intuition, push yourself to take risks, and develop a mentality that keeps you attuned to unpredictable moments that can make your work better.
David shows you how he uses innovative typography to reinforce the message he wants to send. He shares why he believes that every decision about font choice, spacing, color, and layout has the potential to deepen the impression a layout makes.
David is best known for his typography, but his bold photography treatments are essential to his designs. He explains how his approach to photography was forged at Transworld Skateboarding magazine, where he got creative with amateur photos.
In the first of three sessions he holds with a small group of designers, David reviews work from the first assignment: using only the letters of your first name and black and white to communicate your personality.
David talks through what makes logos successful and demonstrates how he iterates on different logo directions from his home studio.
David offers big-picture advice for designers, ranging from where to base yourself to the merits of working for free.
In the second group session, David reviews the next assignment: introducing color into your work and creating a design that reflects how your week is going.
David often incorporates found materials into dynamic collages. In this lesson, he creates several collages in real time, talking through his source materials, design decisions, and how to follow your gut.
While David’s best-known work is often his most irreverent, he also works with more traditional clients. He shares his process, starting with reading the brief through collaborating with clients to achieve the most compelling results possible.
David breaks down the editorial work he pioneered at different magazines that established him as an unpredictable and polarizing figure in the field of graphic design.
David reviews the last assignment, which allowed participants to break free of any constraints to show what kind of future they imagine for themselves.
In his closing lesson, David shares a simple yet powerful exercise to inspire you to think about your future, what you want to accomplish, and what you are doing to make that happen.
