David Carson. “What in the world?” is what I’m thinking every time I see his work. I don’t actually know what makes his work so amazing, but hey, it might just be a matter of preference. To me, his work just looks like a bunch of typography faux-pas, but for some reason it “revolutionized” the way people see typography. I must be missing something, because it doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. He might have one or two works that I can appreciate, but all his work just kind of melts together, like a big mess of letters. However I must respect him as a designer. I don’t doubt that that he puts work and thought into every design, and he has quite the following, so he must be doing something right.

David Carson - Samsung

Even his website is annoying for me to scan through. At the top, there is just one strip of type that says “click: dcd work,bio,clients.” I… wasn’t entertained by its quirkiness. No spaces between the commas. Why would he do that? I ventured, and clicked the “work” button, to see if I could find something I admired. It was one column, and only one item per at a time. I didn’t even like his sea foam-ish green highlights as a border round all his work. It reminded me of bad html highlights.

David Carson - Western Union Rebranding

The first piece of work was… tolerable. I It actually looked pretty interesting, and it the type wasn’t too bad to look at. I could actually tell what was going on, and I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I scrolled down and saw another piece of work: his design for a book by two people named Paul Anderson and David Salomon called “The Architecture of PatternsWhat in the world is going on here? It looks like a middle schooler’s  attempt at trying his hand at Illustrator for the first time. Not appealing at all. Most everything that followed was found to be of a similar air and style, and I quickly looked for some background on the guy.

Apparently he was a teacher at a high school in San Diego. He had worked at developing his signature style, which implemented unconventionally dirty type, and photography that didn’t fit the mainstream bill. He wasn’t a conformist. I admire that. It is also said that he is the father of grunge, one of my favorite things to add into a clean design, just to give it texture and a tangible feel. Reading this, I opened my eyes a bit to his style, and began to appreciate it.

David Carson - Cougar Paper Promotion

I revisited his portfolio, and kept an open mind this time. I scrolled through his work, and actually found some pieces that I enjoyed. Even some typography I admired. I can’t say that I would use that particular style myself, but I had actually come to like it. It doesn’t look like anything else, and that is something I try to embody (though I don’t go so far as Carson himself). I began to actually like his rebel-esque style, and welcome it to the way I think. I actually found myself liking his work!

David Carson - The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg

Not to say that I will start grunging up everything I do, but I really think I can learn a lot from other designers and other styles if I keep my mind open. David Carson has probably gotten many to do this, and I’m glad I got the chance to experience it.

David Carson - '09 Bark Catalog

]]> http://www.jeijidesign.com/2011/03/david-carson-what-in-the-world-is-like-him/feed/ 1 http://www.jeijidesign.com/2010/10/how-to-apply-noise-to-your-design-using-noisegen-by-kris-noble/ http://www.jeijidesign.com/2010/10/how-to-apply-noise-to-your-design-using-noisegen-by-kris-noble/#comments Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:58:52 +0000 Jeiji http://www.jeijidesign.com/?p=289 This is entry is for two types of people:

1. Those who have NO idea how to create nice looking noise.

2. Those who have trouble with photoshop, or just want a quick noise fix

I’m quite aware that there are many ways, and of course faster ways to do this, but this one works for me, it’s just another option. Works especially well for Illustrator.

First of all, I’d like to thank Kris Noble for making such an awesome online app, and solving many designers’ problems. You’ve just made making one great design tool that much easier to use!

I know this site has many features and settings, but I’m going to show you the settings I figured would be the best combo, and get you the maximum amount of sexiness in your art or design with the maximum amount of customizability. Feel free to apply your own twist.

Now, first thing you want to do is go to the NoiseGen Website. Looks like this:

In “Step 1″, adjust the setting like so:

It's just every-so-slightly grey. If I left it white, the contrast might be a bit too much, and it might look more like freckles than noise. Also, if you were to add any kind of color, it wouldn't make it as customizable.

Next, go to “Step 2″, and scoot the noise level up to 50%

Now go to “Step 3″ and make sure the noise type is set to “Dark”

If your composition or design were going to be a dark one, you'd set this setting to "Light", and choose a darker base color in "Step 1", to a value of about 80% black (#333333)

Once you’ve got all those correct, click “Generate Me a Background!”

It should drop it right up on your desktop, and I would suggest renaming it something that would be easy to remember, in a folder you use often for designs or textures. Next, we’re gunna’ drop this sucker into Adobe Illustrator, so open that up (You can do this in Photoshop, too, but I use Illustrator a lot more, so THAT’S HOW WE’RE DOIN’ IT, OKAY?!). Here we go:

Open up whatever file you’re going to be using this noise in. I’ll be using a file I just wanted to add a subtle touch to, my “Hot Lunch” ad.

Nice, right? Good composition, warm colors, gets the point across, I'd say. But let's take a closer look.

Despite the text, it could be hotter. Let's spice it up.

So I just dragged and dropped, but you could also place the noise file you created into the file. What I’m going to do is make it a pattern swatch, by dragging it into the swatches panel.

There it is there! The only problem here is that it's a png file, and if we were to scale it across the entire design, it'd be distorted, and even worse... pixelated!

So in order to make it a pattern, just literally drag it into the swatches panel!

This makes it so that the grain perfectly and seamlessly repeats. How convenient!

Now, you can make a rectangle any size. Make it a bit bigger than the design, and in the “Transparency” panel, switch it over to “multiply”. Knock down the transparency until it stops looking like freckles, and is more ambient and subtle. In this case, 39% worked well.

Not entirely sure, but I believe the blending setting of "multiply" makes all the white in whatever object you chose invisible, and the more white a certain hue in that object has, the less visible it is. Just what I think.

Awesome, looks great! Now if you wanted to add a gradient (I already have in this case), it makes it so that the grain follows the color scheme of whatever falls behind it. Just make sure the noise screen is on the highest layer above everything you want it to affect. Her’s how it came out!

Mmmm. Hot Lunch indeed.

And that’s the tut! Thanks for reading! Be sure to leave a comment if you liked it, hated it, or have any questions! – ジ

]]> http://www.jeijidesign.com/2010/10/how-to-apply-noise-to-your-design-using-noisegen-by-kris-noble/feed/ 0 http://www.jeijidesign.com/2010/10/hot-lunch/ http://www.jeijidesign.com/2010/10/hot-lunch/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 23:35:12 +0000 Jeiji http://www.jeijidesign.com/?p=284

The company trains people in post-production. The concept here is a scene clapper mixed with an actual barn. I would HATE for my barn to actually do that.

You know me, I always feel a good logo can be translated to black and white, or positive and negative space. It's important for one-color applications. It translated perfectly!