David Carson's Challanging Conventions - Ray Gun

Although I have decided that I am going to create a conventional Acoustic music magazine, I believe it is important to look at an unconventional music magazine too. Not everyone wants to follow the conventions of magazines and decide to challenge the norms and still be able to “have a run of success” like the main stream ones do. This is usually down to the fact, that not everyone wants to follow the crowd, they would much rather be their own unique individual. An example of this an unconventional magazine is Ray Gun. 

Ray Gun magazine was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992, directed by the designer David Carson. He is well known for experimenting with music magazine designs and went against the typical conventions you would usually find on the front cover. Between the years 1992 – 2000, Ray Gun has produced over 70 issues, making it one of the most popular unconventional magazines out there.

Above, are some of his creations for music magazine front covers. These show how he didn't follow the same conventions, meaning there is no house style to follow throughout each issue. Every issue he has designed is different, therefore, there was no structure or layout that he kept to e.g. the font is never the same and you would find the barcode being in the middle of the page inside of it being conventionally at the bottom corner somewhere. Unlike NME and Q their mast heads are always in the same position and use the same colours for each issue, whereas, with Ray Gun, this is not the case. The title seems to be shattered wherever David fancies putting it. Therefore, it tends to look more messy and busy than professional, by not keeping to the same colour scheme and font continually. However, maybe the reason why Ray Gun has stayed so popular for so long could be down to the fact of David’s different approach he has used. 

Personally, I do like the cover, as by going against the typical conventions you would expect from a music magazine, would be visually appealing on the eye, as you would not be familiar with this style. The idea of timeless pictures being used is rather interesting to look at, as well as being innovative, as he has cleverly combined these with the use of an unusual typography. By scattering words in random places for each issue, has shown he has used his artist licence and from that perspective it is very creative, however, some people could argue that it is hard to read. Moreover, from a magazine creator’s point of view, this unconventional magazine, with no particular house style it could be criticised due to the fact it has no continuity between each issue. So unless you were searching for that particular magazine, you wouldn't know they were the same magazine, as each issue looks so different.  

Overall, by going against the typical conventions of a music magazine, just because everyone usually sticks to them, makes this magazine more interesting, in my opinion. However, by it having no continuity throughout, may affect the sales of a magazine, as it looks less professional in some aspects and it’s much harder to find on the shelves. Therefore, by not knowing what they are looking for, as there is no element that stays the same, I believe is a disadvantage. Therefore, I will ensure my magazine sticks to the conventions of music magazines because of this fact.