David Carson is by far my favorite graphic designer. What’s interesting is that his work reminds me a lot of my own, but I didn’t actually discover him until I had already started working that way. Nevertheless, his work has become a permanent inspiration of mine, always providing new perspectives. His work speaks to the things I love to experiment with in my own designs: layering, collage, messiness, grunginess. His work came at a time when designers were challenging the ideas of default systems and the clean corporate feeling of the Swiss style. Many even considered this “ugly design”. It is the definition of deconstruction: words are on top of each other, some faded, no perfect kerning or leading. The words are off-center and slanted, the top of Andy Warhol’s head is cut off. This is design that you can see; this isn’t the crystal goblet, it’s the ornamented chalice. David Carson is saying, “This is me. I’m the designer who made this, and I want you to be able to tell.” While Dieter Rams would say that less design is better, Carson would say to pile it on. There are many who agree with Rams; that live by his principles and strive to create invisible design. I, however, am here to make the case for the opposite: design that is seen. Design that is eye-catching. Design that makes a statement and gets people talking. Design that causes problems and allows designers to be loud and free. Design that is flawed. Design that is human. Ugly design.