His first significant exposure to graphic design education came as part of a three-week workshop in Switzerland, where the Swiss graphic designer Hans-Rudolph Lutz influenced him. He then worked in a high school near San Diego from 1982 to 1987. During this time he also carried highly experimental graphic design as the art director of the magazine Transworld Skateboarding.

Among his abilities of art directing, graphic designing and film directing, he was also a professional surfer. His immense interest in the surfing culture persuaded him to return to the West Coast where he helped launch the magazine Beach Culture. The magazine only lasted three years but Carson's pioneering approach to design, particularly toward typography challenged the fundamental aspects of all design and graphic communication.

Carson's work was often arresting and powerfully communicative. From 1991 to 1992 he worked on Surfer magazine. The straightforward styling of the covers was a strong contrast to the later "How" magazine

Another interesting advert, this time with heavy typographic influence is this one for Cuervo Gold Tequila. The text in this ad is very legible, because Carson needs to display a lot of information but also keeps the reader interested by adjusting the type size and spacing. The first line is also very catchy and the whole text draws you deeper and deeper into the ad until you hit the punch line.

His commercial clients included major American brands such as Pepsi Cola, Nike, Levi-Strauss, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, Ray-Ban and NBC. This particular advert for Ray-Ban sunglasses is a good use of a visual pun. The product was called Ray-Ban Orbs, and here you can see that he uses the sunglasses as the 'O' of the word. This idea was also used across posters, print ads and postcards. As you can see in the corner of this ad, unlike the majority of designers, Carson likes to show the reader that he is the designer and insists on most of his ads to carry his name. This use of self-advertising is particularly useful because Carson has seen the opportunity to publicise his name and to show people that he is linked with major brand companies. You may also note that his name is more prominent than the actual Ray-Ban logo and tha

Some common words found in the essay are:
SHEET Carson's, Ray-Ban Orbs, David Carson's, SITE SHEET, Dusseldorf Carson, Gold Tequila, Newsweek Magazine, Beach Culture, Transworld Skateboarding, San Diego, graphic design, cuervo gold, helped launch,
Approximate Word count = 833
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)