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.

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.

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.

I'm experimenting in public. At the design grad schools, these are people sitting around in groups, putting their work on a wall, analyzing it and putting it back in a drawer. I think there's little risk in that.

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.

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.

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