As we get more technically driven, the importance of people becomes more than it's ever been before. You have to utilize who you are in your work. Nobody else can do that: nobody else can pull from your background, from your parents, your upbringing, your whole life experience.

David Carson

There's many ways you communicate. With colour, texture, sound... Even words can communicate.

David Carson

I'm a big believer in the emotion of design, and the message that's sent before somebody begins to read, before they get the rest of the information; what is the emotional response they get to the product, to the story, to the painting - whatever it is.

David Carson

Just because something's legible doesn't means it communicates. More importantly, it doesn't mean it communicates the right thing. So, what is the message sent before somebody actually gets into the material? And I think that's sometimes an overlooked area.

David Carson

I never learned all the things you're not supposed to do; I just do what makes the most sense.

David Carson

Good things are associated with blue, like clear days, more than singing the blues. Just the word 'blue' in the singular is full of optimism and positive connotation to most people.

David Carson

Maybe at some subconscious level, things are done to upset somebody - part of me continues to see no valid reason for many of the accepted rules of design.

David Carson

As we get more technically driven, the importance of people becomes more than it's ever been before. You have to utilize who you are in your work. Nobody else can do that: nobody else can pull from your background, from your parents, your upbringing, your whole life experience.

David Carson

I literally cannot work without music.

David Carson

The dreaded phrase in design circles is 'show and tell.'

David Carson

For some reason I have a visual intuition that allows me to design things in an interesting way, and I don't know where that came from. Because I don't have this formal training, I seem to drift in a different direction.

David Carson

I tend not to have a ton of clients at any one time, but some pretty interesting ones.

David Carson

If I'm doing a logo, I'll do it in black and white. Once the form is feeling right, only then do I start exploring the color palettes. A good example was the process of rebranding the Salvador Dali Museum. I did at least 100 versions in black and white.

David Carson

I think I work much the same way I always have. I'm trying to interpret something emotionally visually. I'm reading the brief or article, or listening to the music, and deciding where that sends me, and what would it look like.

David Carson

My site is a little unorthodox without being totally inaccessible.

David Carson

Having done a lot of magazines, I'm very curious how big magazines handle big stories, and I was very curious to see how 'Time' and 'Newsweek' would handle 9/11. And I was basically pretty disappointed to see that they had chosen to show the photo we'd already seen a million times, which was basically the moment of impact.

David Carson

Overall, people are reading less.

David Carson

When I first started my graphic design career, and 'Beach Culture' magazine, I pretty much ran from the surfer label. It was hard to get people to take you seriously.

David Carson

When I first redesigned the 'Surfer' magazine, a magazine about magazines took a copy to the famous American designer Milton Glaser, and - surprise surprise - he hated it.

David Carson

Some people hate lime-green; red has all this emotional baggage. Blue seems to be overall one of the more positive colors, and a little more serious than yellow.

David Carson

My background is sociology. Combined with my graphic approach, if I could do some film projects, I think I'd be very good at making documentaries eventually, but people don't think of me for that, of course. But dialogue is something I know I can be good at.

David Carson