Graphic design: Use your eye not the rules!

By admin | May 19, 2009
coldclef asked:


Dave Carson talks about graphic design and the secret to his own success: his own eye and audience awareness.

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22 Comments so far
  1. wadehjb May 22, 2009 11:06 am

    I follow the same philosophy. I’ve been painting and doing graphics for years and never had any formal training. I just trusted my creative instincts.

  2. davidedwardclark May 23, 2009 9:45 am

    i disagree with him

  3. dianaclarke May 26, 2009 5:19 am

    Candid, honest words, perhaps like his work.

  4. BchangingN May 26, 2009 12:19 pm

    In today’s advertising market, there are million upon millions of ad’s seen everyday. YOUR job as a graphic designer is to create an ad or design that will catch the eye of the target audience against all of the competing brands.
    Sometimes, it might mean designing something edgy for a more conservative crowd….it might grab their attention to see their mag cover with Obama in a punk rocker outfit.. ok bad example.
    I think at the end of the day, you need to BE PLAYFUL, and CREATIVE!

  5. BchangingN May 27, 2009 4:52 pm

    I agree.
    I feel like I’ve always had a creative eye for things…and having taken college courses, I have been trained in a way, to moderate what I do and don’t do.

  6. AtawallpaQuitumbe May 28, 2009 7:53 am

    dont feel sorry for me, that is the kind of rethoric that I am sick of. If u dont agree, give arguments. I think that the set of rules that define what is goin to be readable to everybody are culturally imposed, and thus, do not represent the whole mass of possible readers, so there is room for design that gets out of that logic and can still be read and understood.

  7. robbiebalboa May 28, 2009 2:49 pm

    hell no, it wouldn’t hurt to have decent ability to sketch, but if you have an understanding of who you want to target then hey you can be a graphic designer.

    the whole myth of graphic design as beng drawing is a load of crud, it’s about simlifying unreabale **** and turning it into something that someone that doesn’t know the alphabet can read.

    BOTTOM LINE IT’S ABOUT GIVING THE VIEWER AN EXPERIENCE

  8. robbiebalboa June 1, 2009 12:07 am

    i feel sorry for you. i’m sure you can get that out of your head soon.

  9. RedCherryScorpion June 2, 2009 2:18 am

    no, but it can be an advantage

  10. sub7th June 3, 2009 6:47 am

    Carson may not follow layout rules but he unwittingly practices a lot of other design theories and philosophies… though arguably, he could’ve been part of the development of those.

    Ultimately your design needs to speak to your target audience. Carsons fortune was that he was an artist with the vision to do that.
    If you applied that same “Surf” practice to Time Magazine you’d lose a lot of readers.

  11. Ortizticart June 5, 2009 3:44 am

    THATS CALLED BEING AN ARTIST:)

  12. EnnEyeSeaKay June 9, 2009 11:50 pm

    The Client! If you aren’t getting paid, it’s not graphic design. It’s art. Then you can do whatever you like.

  13. nnnicdddiaz June 15, 2009 4:05 am

    How I, as a designer feel identified with, is the fact that now I regret having studied in university, cuz my mind is so full of prejudicial voices now, that it gets harder to listen to my creative inner voice.

  14. djaka401 June 15, 2009 8:59 am

    do you need to be a good artist as in drawing? to be a graphic designer?

  15. scootch7 June 16, 2009 4:37 pm

    He had a great impact on me in school, he was at his hottest then. But I knew he wasn’t the end all. And now a days I’m pretty sick of his schtick.

  16. pixelsin June 20, 2009 1:36 am

    And who decides what is “Right”…

  17. BOLTgraphics June 21, 2009 11:53 am

    Caron is NOT a graphic designer, he’s an artist who uses graphic design tools. I like his work don’t get me wrong, but he’s not a graphic designer. Graphic design has a function (mainly conceying information), you need to know ‘the rules’ to be able to do this well. The only thing Carson’s work does well is making what he applies his art to, look ‘cool’. That’s realy all, don’t let him do a dictionary…

  18. balinmar June 21, 2009 11:43 pm

    this is so wrong.. the rules are there to create a balance..other wise everything looks wrong. It’s not art, to just do what “looks good” it has to look right.

  19. rustleleafs June 24, 2009 5:36 pm

    he set a trend like jackson pollack no copying for him.

  20. etienneranc June 24, 2009 9:35 pm

    Carson’s design style fits the products he’s designed, he could never design Wallpaper Magazine or any other “neat” and functional magazine. He’s not versatile as a Designer.

  21. etienneranc June 27, 2009 3:41 pm

    Carson’s design style fits the products he’s designed, he could never design Wallpaper Magazine or any other “neat” and functional magazine. He’s not versatile as a Designer.

  22. iemai1974 July 1, 2009 2:41 am

    great, just great

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