david carson and helvetica. no good combo.

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These Helvetica posters by David Carson (who openly admits he hates Helvetica) are just painful. Boo. Boo. Boo.

14 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Poor David Carson. He went from being so totally relevant to so totally…not.

  2. Agreed, I hated those the minute I saw them. Why on earth would they ask David Carson to design a Helvetica poster? I thought we’d all finally forgot about him and his mid-90’s style.

  3. I agree the prints by Norm, Build, and Experimental Jetset are so much more appropriate and beautiful. Booo… too bad the Experimental Jetset one is sold out.

  4. David Carson is a hack. Always has been. His style is dreadful.

  5. More like “david carson and design. no good combo.” :)

  6. I personally can’t stand his “design”. Did you read his correspondence with Lundar BBDO btw, where he really show his true colours…

    http://lunarbbdo.blogspot.com/2007/04/david-carson-seems-to-have-too-much.html

  7. i do think his explorations in deconstructing letterforms in Ray Gun (and countless book jackets, posters and ads) in the early nineties had a pretty big influence on the design community and even trends of recombinations of parts to create a new whole (see Wylie Dufresne in a parallel universe). But man, that guy (carson) was always hammered when i saw him speak. What’s up with that?

  8. I’ve always wondered how he’s published/edited so many books when his design is so atrocious.

  9. I thought Halloween was 15 days ago?!

  10. Take it easy folks! Sure, Carson probably had more than his fare share of limelight in the 90s. He didn’t invent decon after all. BUT he can’t be unduly criticised for being good at self-promotion. There is another aspect of design called strategic design: getting the product to market. Carson was really good at that, that was a major part of his talent. Just because his graphic design is not everyone’s cup of tea doesn’t make him a bad designer. He has helped in his own way to make our profession seem a worthy career to aspire to. Regarding the comment about the email battle between Lunar DDBO and Carson, I would trust the designer’s word over an ad agency ANY day of the week. As Storm Thorgersen once said ‘advertising as an industry is morally and intellectually bankrupt’.

  11. opps!
    maybe tina shoulda stayed in swissland?
    its classic she didnt realize the poster was not done
    in helvetica. she was the intended audience and it seems to have worked quite well : )

    carsons posters, by the way, according to director gary hustwit,
    have SOLD OUT, and gary has requested more be printed.
    go figure!

    re:read michael post above : )

  12. franklin gothic

  13. and these comments, negative or positive, are the point.

  14. David Carson had balls to stick to that effortless work he was doing during a time when most designer were most reserved about breaking the rules, such as legibility. The people today who still admire David Carson’s work very well may be admiring his balls.