David Carson

David Carson is the "grunge typographer" whose magazine Ray Gun helped explode the possibilities of text on a page.

Ray Gun has many different options has it has a very specific audience. I personally do not like the design of the magazine, if I saw this on a magazine shelf there would be nothing that would appeal in order to purchase it. The cover has gone against everything that is normal in magazine design David Carson as not used any of the usual magazine conventions. Due to not having an cover lines there is nothing to show what the magazine is going to include, meaning there is no indication of what the magazine is going to include. However this may have the opposite effect on people as they may be draw people into buying the magazine in order to see what is inside. Due to the cover not following the classic magazine conventions, the page looks slightly over crowed as there is so much going on at once with now set order.

However many people do have positive opinions towards the magazine cover, due to the creativity of what David is achieving. He has gone against what is typical of a magazine cover leading it to then stand out on a shelf as it is so different as all other magazines follow the typical magazine conventions. The alternative use of letters and numbers further adds to the abstract look of the magazine.

Although David Carson tried to do something different it failed as only 70 magazines were purchased from the years 1992-2000. This shows that although people like different things and try to be different it doesn't always work. 

Overall as interesting as the magazine may look not using the typical magazine conventions did not work for carson, that was then portrayed by the little sales of the magazine there were.