A name that carries the spirit of rebellion within the world of graphic design. Born on September 8, 1954, Carson's journey started far from the traditional design studios – it began on the shores, riding waves as a passionate surfer.

Growing up amidst the sun-soaked landscapes, Carson developed an innate connection to the visual beauty surrounding him. Little did he know that his love for the unconventional would shape his destiny.

Forget everything you thought you knew about graphic design. David Carson wasn't interested in following the straight and narrow. He came in like a rogue wave, surfboard under one arm and a chaotic vision in the other. This is where grunge typography takes centre stage.

Imagine ripping photos from magazines, layering them with reckless abandon, and then throwing all the design rules out the window. That's the essence of Carson's style.Carson embraced a typography mosh pit. Skewed letters, mixed sizes, and a disregard for legibility became his weapons of choice.

When I got David Carson as my design inspiration in an assignment, I got overwhelmed. Because this is clearly not who I am as a designer and as a person. I like to do work in a structured manner, with process and layouts. But my faculty, Maithili Mam, helped me to dig more into Carson's world and I tried as much as I could.

I tried sketching 10s of versions to initiate the process, but nothing was coming even 10% close to David Carson’s style. So I thought of mixing every sketch together and seeing where it goes.

I started with the custom type because that is the most iconic thing about Carson. He does a lot of exploration in type, and the crazy thing is, he never uses only one kind of type in his designs. So I tried to keep the text bold yet rough and a little bit underdone. And added the necessary elements like photo, date, location afterward because it was meant to be an exhibit poster.

I won't say it matches David Carson's style perfectly, but when I see this through my lens and the style I have, I feel pretty satisfied with what I could manage to design. Even my faculty was happy that I came out of my comfort zone and created something that I could never do intentionally!