Grunge and Carson

Throughout the history of art many individuals and movements have rebelled against previous movements, each having their own reasons. Back in the 70’s there was the explosion of punk, this was a highly rebellious movement which became a sub-culture, still living on today as a minority. Punk was highly influenced by its music.

Taking our view away from art itself but still keeping it in context, music has and will always leave a mark on art. Music like art brings along movements, sub –cultures, this in turn affects individual’s styles, from clothing to art to state of mind.

Grunge is a movement/subculture which spread throughout the 80’s and kept going towards the early 90’s. Musically, rock has brunched into many different sub-groups over the years (just like art, many do consider music as art) one of these sub-groups was punk, and punk then led to grunge. Grunge as opposed to punk began in the USA in Seattle, like punk it was mainly underground music, which lead to its popularization. Grunge music is characterized by distortion, slightly twisted lyrics which were almost meaningless at times. It was loved due to the fact that it sounded raw and rusty.

This is where the graphic design part comes in, grunge typography, much like grunge music share the same characteristics, rebellious, raw and “aimed at the younger generations”. One of the most renowned grunge designers is David Carson. He can be considered mainly as a layout designer, Carson had no formal education within layout design. But he fell in love with graphic design at the time. He had a belief that if one is happy on the work place, one would not call it work.

His rebellious designs caused a ‘confusion’ amongst other trained designers due to the fact that Carson didn’t follow the rules (partly due to the fact that he didn’t know them). Many argued that one must know the rules so break them. When I say breaking the rules I mean breaking the grid. Layout designs works with grids to keep everything organized. Grunge at the time was far from organized. Carson adapted his layouts to look different, order within disorder. He believed that one does not always have to read type to get that feeling of emotion, but type can stand for its self.

With relation to graphic design today we see such influences everywhere. If one had to just type in David Carson on google he would find countless spreads inspired by Carson’s own spreads, made by students. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on art (just like those who did not agree with Carson’s style), and this is the beauty of it, because through personal opinions new movements begin to be crated.