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

Despite the unique nature of the work, though, his influence has led to a generation of students and various designers borrowing stylistic elements from his distinctive handling of typography and image.

covers. Here you could associate with Carson as his unique use of typography filled each cover to give an interesting introduction to the contents.

This final piece of work is for two ads for an Internet search company, which play off the idea of extracting the right information. I think this is some of Carson's best work because the typography involved could be said to be the diffinitive Carson, showing his typography skills to there fullest. Both ads show the most creative use of text because the text is seen as objects rather than single words.

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.

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)