I got into the design profession because of David Carson.
I was 15 or so when I bought a copy of RayGun magazine with Dinosaur Junior on the cover. It was bizarre and cool and hip in the way that newsness often is. I came to RayGun for the music, but it was the type, photography, and illustration that kept me coming back issue after issue.
It was 10 years, 2 universities, and 3 majors before I found myself in the art department at the University of Minnesota. 10 years to figure out that I loved putting words on pictures. I started writing on all my work for school. This was met with mixed response. My figure drawing teachers didn’t particularly appreciate the hand drawn Hoefler Text that overlaid my nude studies, but my wood cut teacher dug it.
I write words and draw them on pictures.
I thought about being an economist. Hard to imagine really, but I found the implications of the study fascinating. I then thought about working in Urban Development. Also really interesting, but it turns out the practical career paths for Urban Planners are few and far between and generally peak at repaving freeways. I thought about a lot of different things, but none of em stuck.
My tastes have evolved, and my interests have expanded – but at the very core sticking words on pictures is still my single favorite thing to do. If you can perfectly pair words and pictures, you create something new that didn’t exist in either. For me it’s just that simple. I coulda been a sign painter, a newspaper editor, an ad man, or printing press operator. If I have to do something 8-10 hours 5 days a week for the next 30 years of my life, this is going to be it. Words & Pictures. Everything else is just noise.
I found my thing. I’m one of the luckiest bastards out there. If you can figure out what that simple thing is that makes you happy – you can find 8 million different careers where you get to do it. They might not all be what you had in mind, but I bet anyone of them would make you happy.
Thanks David Carson.