The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson

He was the enfant terrible of graphic design in the nineties. His tortured typography prompted a vocal camp of critics to accuse him of being flippant and of destroying the communicative basis of design. But now the techniques of David Carson (and those of his countless imitators) dominate advertising, design, the Web, and even motion pictures. With 35,000 copies of the original sold, this revised edition of The End of Print includes a striking new cover and first chapter that puts Carson's work in context. The rest is vintage Carson-cutting edge and explosive. The End of Print tracks his career from skateboard and surf magazines, to the landmark Beach Culture magazine and his groundbreaking grid-breaking work for Ray Gun, and finally to handling major corporate identity accounts. The End of Print marks a turning point in design that ushered in the look of today.

People are rarely neutral toward the work of graphic designer David Carson; it vibrates off the page, sometimes deliberately obscuring the text that goes with it, and (for better or worse) it's had a profound influence on design in the US and elsewhere. A revised edition of the former pro surfer's 1995 monograph, the volume is loaded with beautifully printed examples of Carson's radical work for magazines, advertising, and the Web. Larded in between are snippets of text, commenting on the impact of his creative evolution, from trend-setting writers and artists such as Douglas Coupland, Bill Gubbins, Jessica Helfand, Tibor Kalman, and David Byrne. The work has no index (indexes—they're sooo print culture). Oversize: 9.75x11.5<">.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The enfant terrible of graphic design in the nineties. David Carson's techniques (and those of his imitators) now dominate advertising, design, the Web, and even motion pictures. With 35,000 copies of the original sold, this revised edition includes a striking new cover and first chapter that puts Carson's work in context. The rest is vintage Carson--cutting edge and explosive.

"The End of Print" is the first collection of the work of David Carson, arguably the most innovative and influential graphic designer of the 1990s. Carson's layered, challenging approach to typography now dominates advertising, design, the Web, and even motion pictures and has earned him an international reputation. 225 color and b&w images. with 8-page gatefold.

Lewis Blackwell is the author of several books on graphic design. He lives in London.
David Carson is a former surfer and high school teacher whose unorthodox graphic style spawned numerous disciples and detractors. He lives in New York.