David Carson
David Carson (born September 8, 1955) was the designer for most Nine Inch Nails releases from 1999-2002. In an interview with medium.com, Carson spoke about the NIN design commission being one of his favorite projects.[1]
Biography
Carson attended San Diego State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. He then started studying graphic design. He spent time as a professional surfer before working for the magazines Self and Musician, Beach Culture, and Transworld Skateboarding.
He found wide exposure while working for the iconic 90s music magazine Ray Gun, and then started getting commissioned by major corporations like Nike, Pepsi, and Levi Strauss. He went on to become a massively influential figure in modern graphic design, and was frequently emulated by other designers during the height of his popularity. He is known in the graphic design world as the "father of grunge".
His books Trek and Fotografiks contain images that ended up in some of his designs for Nine Inch Nails.
Work with NIN
- The Fragile
- We're In This Together
- Into The Void
- And All That Could Have Been
- Still
- Portions of the live visuals for "La Mer", "The Great Below", and "The Way Out Is Through" on the Fragility v1.0 tour
- The Fragile TV commercial
The artwork for Not The Actual Events and The Fragile: Deviations 1 was also based on or inspired by designs by Carson for Still and The Fragile, respectively.