Ray Gun Magazine The Legacy That Still Lives On

by Jamie Yale

Economic prosperity and the grunge, hip-

hop movement characterized the 1990’s, a

decade fondly remembered as a time of rap-

id technological advances and acceptance

of multiculturalism. Every aspect of life

seemed to be touched by this “dot com” era, and graphic design was

no exception. The Internet and digital technology provided graphic

designers with the means to disseminate their work quickly through

society and reach wide numbers of people. Through their postmod-

ern approach, many designers used deconstructed typography and

encompassed a nostalgic style, which is exemplified in Ray Gun’s

24th edition magazine cover featuring Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.

Founder of Ray Gun magazine, David Carson used a retro mash-

up style which has had a profound influence on not only Ray Gun

magazine but also the graphic design industry for decades.

Founded in 1992, Ray Gun magazine embraces abstract, illegi-

ble, and chaotic designs. The magazine reports on pop culture icons

and rising stars in the rock ‘n’ roll industry. Prior to Carson’s design

career, he was a college lecturer and was ranked the eighth best surf-

er in the world. As a designer, he rejected conventional hierarchy

and believed “one should not mistake legibility for communication

because while many highly legible traditional printed messages offer

little visual appeal to reader, more expressionist designs can attract

and engage them.” This design style was the backbone of many of

Ray Gun magazines covers.

The social and political environment of the ‘90s was primarily

marked by the digital age, which affected design styles in several

ways. Sci-fi and gaming inspired a deconstructed typographic style

and designers began to rely less on heavy bitmapped fonts and

low-resolution photos. As a result, these technological advantages

gave designs a less polished look. In 1994, Adobe introduced the

concept of “layers” into design, a revolutionary feature that allowed

designers to build upon their work without the risk of loosing previ-

ous designs. Also resulting from the digital age was rapid informa-

tion dissemination throughout society. For the first time, graphic

design could spread popular culture across social media outlets.

Ray Gun’s audience is primarily Generation X, as the magazine appeals to this group’s desire to rebel against conventional tradi-tions. The chaotic designs resonate well with this group, while other generations find it difficult to make sense of Ray Gun’s designs and tend to prefer a more straightforward layout such as those found in The New York Times. Ray Gun excludes a large, general audience and rather appeals to a small, loyal target market who supports its stylistic expression. Ray Gun engages in a form of elitism where only a specific group of multi-layered, expressive people can inter-pret the various levels of meaning within the designs. The context of the designs is equally important when appealing to Ray Gun’s audience. For example, Ray Gun magazine’s designers would not feature Brian Ferry on the magazine cover because he is a musician who was popular before Generation X’s time. When Ray Gun did include Brian Ferry in the body of the magazine in 1994, designers mutated the text, images, and symbols to make a cultural and political statement that would attract Generation X’s

attention to a figure who is otherwise irrelevant to this are group. In Ray Gun’s 24th edition, Eddie Vedder, rock musician from Pearl Jam, is featured on the cover. Vedder is a Gen-Xer himself and is known for appealing to this group. Ray Gun designers are aware of his popularity and purposefully made him the focus of that month’s edition. Ray Gun’s layouts demanded patience and dedication to un-derstand the odd shapes and text. In the early years of the magazine, Ray Gun’s controversial designs were met with mixed reviews. Carson spent much time speaking to students and designers about his unique design style, a style that was quickly catching on in many magazines and advertisements beyond Ray Gun. While speaking at The Maryland Institute of Art, a student asked Carson if he was “purposefully contributing to the illiteracy of youth in America?” Many Americans felt the chaotic and unstructured messages were not provoking thought but rather promoting incorrect grammar and thoughtlessness.

▲ Musician Eddie Vedder from rock band Pearl Jam featured on the cover of Ray Gun Magazine’s 24th edition.

Target Audience

Although not understood by everyone, Ray Gun was

met with much praise and admiration for its unique

typography and rebellious style. According to The

Christian Science Monitor, Ray Gun’s circulation more

than doubled from 55,000 to 120,000 readers after just

one year of publication, indicating that thousands of

people were fascinated by its provocative text and chaot-

ic imagery.

Today, scholars view David Carson as one of the

most influential graphic designers of his time. His con-

tribution to Ray Gun magazine and his courage to chal-

lenge conventional design were unprecedented. Carson’s

work has appeared in several museums abroad, most

notably in the Marlborough Fine Art Gallery in London

where he was featured among six other contemporary

painters and sculptors. This was considered breaking

the norm because all six designers were British born

Norart-college trained, of which Carson was neither.

“Today, scholars view David Carson as one of the most influential graphic designers of all time.”

Impact Then and Today

The lack of white space used in Ray Gun magazine’s 24th edition cover creates a bold, chaotic feel. With a blurry black and white photo of Eddie Vedder filling the entire page, a visual representation of Vedder’s rock ‘n’ roll band is created. The text is layered on top of Vedder’s photo, which adds to the busy, structure less layout. Proximity, scale and hierarchy are utilized through several design choices. Al-though there is little white space and much text, visual harmony is still achieved. The text at the top of the photo serves as a focal point because the bold, large font quickly draws the attention. This text reads “24 Ray Gun” and is placed next to “Eddie Vedder” and “Mudhoney interview.” The proximity of this text to

each other encourages the reader’s eyes to wander from the title of the magazine to the topic of this edition. The viewer’s eyes may next wander to the photo of Eddie Vedder, which commands the next largest amount of attention according to

the principles of hierarchy. Across the bottom of the photo is messy, illegible text. The placement of text throughout the layout encourages the viewer to peruse the photo from top to bottom, creating a

form of visual harmony. Contrast is achieved through color and typography choices. The large text across the top is a bold serif with accents of color, contrasting with the messy colorless script

across the bottom. In addition, the layout is designed with centered and right aligned text, creating a contrast in alignment. The right aligned text is slightly unconven-tional and more difficult to read, which supports the feeling of chaos. The text across the top of the magazine cover is centered, creating more conventional text. While this layout is designed with more contrast than repetition, there are some repeating elements in this design. The jagged edge on the left side of the alignment creates a feeling of repetition, with every other line protruding further to the left. In addition, the consis-tency of black and white through-out creates a feeling of sameness and consistency. A combination of symmetry and asymmetry is used throughout the design. The top of the photo is symmetrical with the centered text and Eddie Vedder’s face falling in the middle of the photo. In contrast, the bottom of the photo is heavier on the right side, with darker colors and right aligned text falling in this bottom corner, creating a slightly off balance design.

Ray Gun’s Design Principles and Typography

“Although there is little white space and much text, visual harmony is still achieved.”

Ray Gun’s designs belong to the futurism artistic movement. Characterized

by shockingly aggressive enthusiasm for modernism, the futurist designers

did not adhere to grammatical rules and emphasized their personal visual

interpretations. Many futurist design elements are present in Ray Gun’s 24th

edition magazine cover. For example, futurism is built around chaos and

lack of control. Ray Gun encompasses this feeling through the eerie black-

and-white cover photo. The blurred image feels violent and revolutionary,

two distinct characteristics of the futurist movement. The wild looking ty-

pography adds to this sense of disorder. Twisted and slanted text is common

in futurist designs, and Ray Gun utilizes wild scripts and contrasting san ser-

ifs to create unstructured forms. Overall, Ray Gun’s 24th edition magazine

cover breaks traditional rules of graphic layout like most futurist pieces. Text

sizes and fonts do not adhere to any standards and the design lacks unity.

Ray Gun magazine and David Carson’s revolutionary work is still ad-

mired today. From the ‘90s era of grunge hip-hop and multicultural accep-

tance to the influence of chaotic futurist design elements, many historical

and political movements influenced Ray Gun. Although Carson’s designs

were not always fully understood, they had a profound impact on the way

designers viewed structure and layout in graphic design for decades to come.

Design Categorization

{ }“Although Carson’s designs were not always fully understood,

they had a profound impact on the way designers viewed

structure and layout in graphic design for decades to come.”

Work Cited

http://www.designishistory.com/1980/ray-gun/

http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/lec-ture10/magazine90s.htm).

http://www.angelfire.com/me/thestar/chaptthree.html

http://search.proquest.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/docview/109259020/85D0F38C7B754B90PQ/1?accountid=14537

http://search.proquest.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/docview/513149447/85D0F38C7B754B90PQ/3?accountid=14537

http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/t/tag/raygun/

Twentieth Century Designby Tony Seddon