david carson

With Huck and Little White Lies magazines both part of The Church of London stable, it's a tradition that the covers of last two issues of the year have a visual relationship to one another. This year the link between them is that divisive figure of graphic design,David Carson...

For the Jan/Feb 2011 cover of film title Little White Lies, the magazine's creative director Paul Willoughby sketched the film's lead, Natalie Portman, and passed the drawing (and LWL cover furniture) across to Carson, the brief being that he would craft something in response.

The result sees some black foiled type spread over the whole cover; an unusual take for the magazine, where the 'issue' title usually plays second fiddle to the main illustration. Despite a $ made from the clash of "s" and "H", I rather like the fact that with a portrait of a face as obviously magazine-friendly as Portman's, the type directly subverts the image, the ruffled feathers almost echoing the violent placement of the letters.

For Huck, Carson applied a more recognisable typographic style, working with the magazine's creative director, Rob Longworth. Disruption seems to be the order of the day here, however, with Oskar Enender's photograph of a lone snowboader adorned with a skewed barcode and a conspicuously 'undesigned' type treatment at the bottom.

While I can take or leave the rather forced Carson© treatment of the bottom section, the masthead is much more interesting; different enough to catch your eye, but still recognisably Huck.

Last year Geoff McFetridge brought the two issues together using a single illustration in an excellent Where the Wild Things Are tribute. It revealed it's full charm when the titles were displayed together on the magazine rack (see the CR blog post on the work, here).

In having the designer himself as the link between the covers, however, the connection between the issues is much more subtle. But will that mean there's more room for each one to stand out?

Posted by Mark Sinclair, 21 December 2010, 16:26

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/december/david-carson-little-white-lies-huck

letters

When letters are all that are needed. I can't believe how good this is. I, myself, do not know where to begin to create such a piece. There is so much detail, without there being a lot of detail. You almost feel as if your being watched. You want to know what he is thinking, but with his sunglasses you can't read what is in his eyes.

Negative space

Never use Papyrus, never type vertical, 7 degree angle only. This just needs to go into the trash. I can not say how much is wrong with it. There are no words that describe how bad this is. Well, maybe, trash, no, beyond horrific.

Kerning and Leading

Kerning and Leading is very important. When everything is really tight together it makes it really hard to read and does not look appealing either. Also when letters are to far apart some words do not look like words. Just letters.

Can words make you hungry?

It may be words, but it is 3D. It looks like fries. I want some now. I feel like I can reach into the picture and grab one. I don't know what I would do if this was real. I like it better in a picture than if it was right next to me. It would not look right and if it was shinny would not make me hungry. I really like how this works. Although it will not make me a Burger King fan.

color and text

All that was used here was color and text. I would not be surprised if the text were lines from the movie. I would like this more if it was so. Looking at it, it feel like it as movement. I say that is another point is saying this is a well done piece.

Trying to make a 60's album cover

Lady Gaga is a modern  version of the 60's. I duplicated one photo four times. Each photo was then made in random colors, none duplicated.  Although the thought behind it works for the 60's, the text I used did not work. I need to study fonts from that time more.