David Ray Carson, also known as The Godfather of Grunge is an American graphic designer. He is best known for his innovation within magazine design, and the use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun, and was perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the 1990s. In particular, his widely imitated aesthetic defined the so-called "grunge typography" era.

As art director of the magazine Ray Gun (1992-5), Carson came to worldwide attention. In a feature story, NEWSWEEK magazine said he "changed the public face of graphic design".

His layouts featured distortions or mixes of 'vernacular' typefaces and juxtaposed imagery, rendering them almost illegible. In the later 1990s he added corporate identities including Microsoft, Armani, Nike, Levis, British Airways, Quiksilver, Sony, Pepsi, Citibank, Yale University, Toyota and many others.

David Carson's boundary-breaking typography in Ray Gun magazine and other pop-cult books, ushered in a new vision of type and page design, in other words, simply put, breaking the traditional mold of type on a page and demanding fresh eyes from the reader.

Through the use of squishing, smashing, slanting and enchanting the words on a layout, Carson made the point, over and over, that letters on a page are art. You can see the repercussions of his work to this day.

Via: Ted,Wikipedia