Over the holidays, a family member gifted me a one-year subscription to Masterclass (if you aren’t familiar with Masterclass, it’s an e-learning platform with courses taught by well-known experts). After a few minutes of scrolling through all of the options, I decided to start with David Carson’s graphic design course.

As a disclaimer, I would not recommend this course to anyone who doesn’t already have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of graphic design. David Carson’s reputation is built on the fact that his work is experimental, and dismisses many of the principles one would be taught in a “Graphic Design 101” seminar in favor of playful imagery that is constructively disruptive. The old adage rings true here: you have to know the rules before you break them.

And I was ready to break some rules.

That’s another reason I was eager to take Carson’s course: I’ve always been very much a rule-follower. It’s only recently that I’ve been learning to let go of my more fastidious side and to embrace taking things less seriously.

“Design isn’t life or death… why not take some chances? Why not put some of yourself into the work? Why not push yourself?”-David Carson

Throughout the twelve lessons, Carson discussed his past projects relating to each lesson topic, including typography, color, logo design, editorial design, and working with clients. That’s why it’s called a Masterclass, after all: it’s a master showing their own work so you can learn from their experience and unique perspective. This is also another reason why beginners should learn the fundamentals before diving into a course like this one because the work displayed will, more often than not, be only that of the instructor. It’s important to show up to class with a thorough understanding of what’s out there. You may find that while you appreciate the instructor’s perspective, you may not agree with all of it and choose to take a different approach yourself. You can only make those independent artistic choices if you have a diverse array of inspiration sources to draw from.

There were also three assignments that students are encouraged to complete, each with introspective prompts created to inspire class-takers to put themselves into their work. I’m happy to share my completed assignments below.

Assignment 1: Create a self portrait using only the letters of your name and black and white.

For this piece, I knew I had to write the letters of my name in cursive to express the “old-soul” part of my character (and I actually do write in cursive more often than print). Keeping the letters right-side up seemed too simple, so I rotated them to obscure their literal shape.

I think a lot about the disparity between how people see me and how I see myself. The circled letters represent this external perspective: put-together, organized, diligent, and on-top of everything. The areas surrounding the letters represent my internal perspective: high-energy, a little chaotic, and the presence of some darker gray areas without the complete absence of levity and brightness.

Someone I showed this piece to thought of the letters like planets whose gravity pulls everything together creating something stable, and even though most people don’t really know the nuts-and-bolts of how gravity works, it does. While it was not my original intention with this piece, I like this interpretation as well.

Assignment 2: Describe your week using only color.

The week I made this piece, I was very overwhelmed. Between the state of the world, work, and the busyness of the holiday season, I didn’t feel trapped by stress so much as I felt defined by it in that moment.

To express this, each blob of color moving towards the center shares the the same curvature as the blob that precedes it. Thus, the shape of the center orange blob is determined by the form of everything surrounding it. It only appears the way it does because of its outside influences.

I chose to use different shades of teal because using shades of black/grey felt too derivative, and using navy blue as the starting color would have resulted in something too ocean-like for my preference.

Assignment 3: With no restrictions, create a piece that shows where you want to be 10 years from now.

I thought long and hard about where I want to be 10 years from now. And the answer simply is that I don’t know yet. Rather than pressure myself into contriving a vision of my future, I decided to create a piece that expresses my lack of knowing.

The words are an abstraction of the all too commonly asked question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” arranged to resemble a staircase. Because English is read left-to-right, this implies that I will be growing/going up the stairs, hopefully to a future that is good and better than the past we are all forced to leave behind as we move through different stages of our lives.

I used a pencil brush in Procreate to give the piece a child-like quality, and to contrast the arrangement of the type, removing a bit of stiffness with the addition of a whimsical texture. The lines surrounding the letters are based off of the staircase’s shape and are reminiscent of both tree rings (one of my favorite metaphors for personal growth) and hospital baby blankets. The colors are more muted tones of pink and blue inspired by those blankets as well.

In Conclusion…

Taking David Carson’s graphic design Masterclass was a worthwhile experience in my opinion. It was great to be reminded that design doesn’t need to be stiff and corporate all the time; it can be expressive and out-of-the-box. You should always strive to put your own personality into the work wherever possible (provided you still follow the guidelines of the creative brief). Moving forward, I aim to spend less time thinking of what my design work “should be” and more time making it what it can be: uninhibited self-expression.