T E J A S J A G A N N A T H A N

Meeting of the Minds.Written and compiled by Tejas Jagannathan

All rights reserved. This book has no commercial intent and is meant for academic purposes only. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, with-out prior permission of the author.

We, as people, feel the need to hate and bash everything that we don’t understand. We are divided by religion, occupation, gender, and the like.We fail to notice all that brings us together. ‘Meeting of the Minds’ shows the similarities between artists from different backgrounds. Everything in this world is divided to make things easier for us but sometimes you must look past those divisions.

As a graphic designer, my goal is to communicate, to tell a story, and send a message to a defined target audience. As a storyteller, I search for inspiration from things around me. Just because I am a graphic designer, doesn’t mean I have to look at other graphic design-based artworks to gain inspiration. Inspiration is everywhere; it’s in movies, comedy, music, and so on. All of these different mediums have a story to tell, but they are simply told through a different art form or language. We may not understand some of them, but that doesn’t make it wrong. We, as any creative storytellers, must be open-minded enough to try and understand different art forms and artists.

A union between unconventional minds.

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G R A P H I C D E S I G N E RBorn on September 8, 1955, in Texas, United States, David Carson is known for his unconventional style which revolutionized visualcommunication in the 1990s.

P R O F E S S I O N A L W R E S T L E RBorn on December 7, 1985, in Ohio, United States, Jonathan Good is

known for his edgy unpredictable personality which has caught on among all the wrestling fans.

DAvID CARSON

Carson started Graphic Design relatively late in life. Before he delved into graphic design, he was a professional surfer and was also the ninth best in the world. His interest in the world of surfing gave him the opportunities to experiment with design by working on several different publications related to the profession. Transworld Skateboarding, Beach Culture, How Magazine and RayGun were among the primary publications on which he worked. However, it was RayGun where he gained the most recognition and was able to share his design style characterized by “dirty” type, which adheres to none of the standard practices of typography and is often illegible with the widest audience. After the success of RayGun and press from the New York Times and Newsweek, he formed his own studio. David Carson Design was founded in 1995 and is still home to Carson and his work. The firm was instantly successful and attracted well-known, wealthy corporate clients.

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JONATHAN GOOD

Much of Good’s wrestling persona is based on his own real-life upbringing. Spending much of his childhood in public housing, Jonathan Good was an avid wrestling fan who used the sport as an escape from his rough upbringing by immersing himself in it. He watched every wrestling videotape he could. Good started his career back in 2004 under the name of Jon Moxley. Earning high praise from independent companies around the world, he became a household name for the hardcore, holding championship gold in companies such as Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Ring of Honor (ROH), Dragon Gate, and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Good went on to wrestle in Japan, England, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, Mexico, US, Ireland until finally getting a contract to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on April 4th, 2011. He would start under the name of Dean Ambrose and has gone on to become one of their top stars instantly.

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“I just did what made sense to me, self indulgent was the big negative term, which I think is a very positive term. I wouldn’t want anyone working for me that wasn’t doing very self-indulgent work, totally absorbed into it. Let your personality come through, pull from who you are as a person into the work.”David Carson

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“I don’t want to go in the ring and play a persona, or be something that I am not. I go out there and be me. I do what makes sense to me and though that goes against the traditional ‘wrestler’, it works for me.” Jonathan Good

DAvID CARSON

“The starting point is to not make it pretty, or award winning, the starting point is to try to interpret something.” David Carson’s art and ideology in creating his art originated from his love to surf. The ideology of people within this subculture is freedom; it is the foundation of everything that he stands for.

The freedom to create art that scares, art that inspires, art that sometimes does not make sense: it all is achievable if there is independence to do so. Carson, in an interview said, “I had total freedom, I did not have to follow the directives that my teachers and influences have.” He also mentioned in the same interview that, “the lack of training helped.” This way he not only has the freedom to create what he wanted but he relied solely upon himself to create.

“I never learned all the rules, all the things you’re not supposed to do.” He did not have an extensive study at a design school, where he could study the rules. Therefore his artwork is based on his logic and self-indulgence and those things play a huge part in his work.

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JONATHAN GOOD

Proverbially thrown down to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the side at his conception, Jonathan Good was raised a grim life. Essentially raising himself at an early age in a life that no person could truly envy, Jon made a strong note in his documentary saying, “There was nothing else. There was the crappy real world, and the awesome world of wrestling which was so much better.”

With an immediate fondness for Extreme Championship Wrestling (a brutal hardcore wrestling organization), Jon felt he immediately connected with realism; everyone was angry, everyone wanted to hurt each other, and only looked out for themselves. Discovering the company while watching television with his friend and father, Jon’s dedication to the company made him get out onto the fire escape and duct-tape his television to the edge to get reception. He had no other options in mind; Jon knew who he was and what he wanted to be. For him to be successful in wrestling, he had to be himself.

Wrestling is an art form of telling a story between good and evil through predetermined fights. Dean Ambrose uses his logic and common sense to narrate this story, even if it may go against the traditions.

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themselves. Knowing yourself is very important and the one thing you see in both of their works are their personalities. They use who they are as individuals in their work—they make it personal. Every design or a wrestling match to them is an opportunity to show different sides of themselves. They have an objective and they do what makes sense to them.

People like them are often looked down upon but they rebel nonetheless. David Carson and Jonathan Good never received proper training in what they do and

David Carson and Jonathan Good come from two very different backgrounds: graphic design and professional wrestling. They have two different stories. When you look at them closely, they are as different as it can get. Although when you look at it from a distance, you view the overall picture. The more you look, the less you see. When their work and approach towards what they do is seen, similarities are noticed. They are known for being chaotic in what they do and are very different among their own fields. They are the odd ducks, but what makes them unique is that they are

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they used that to their advantage. They had no one to tell them what was wrong. You can say whatever you want about their work, love it or hate it, but it can’t be ignored. Their work catches attention; people want to see what’s next. They put themselves into their work and that’s what inspires everyone.

You don’t have to be a wrestler or a graphic designer to understand the story they’re telling. What we all can learn from them is to use our narrative in whatever we do. What makes you different from everyone else is your story. They both teach

us the value of using that story and embracing it. Even if it’s a story of a kid having to raise himself without any support. You can use your story and its experiences, which is different from everyone else. Most importantly, they enjoy what they do. In whatever story you create, you must pull from who you are.

Design is not decoration and a wrestling match isn’t about flashy fighting moves. They both have a story if you just look deeper; there is always something that can be taken away from it.

Example: David Carson once changed a paragraph’s font to a d ingbat font because he found it boring and unnecessary. One may take this as an offense, but he did what he thought was right. Similarly, Jonathan Good wrestles in a pair of jeans and a shirt, unlike the traditional wrestlers because he just doesn’t understand why anyone would fight in underwear. These are just two instances and there are several more which make them very unique.

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G R A P H I C D E S I G N E RBorn on September 12, 1964, in Pennsylvania, United States, Chip Kidd is a contemporary American graphic designer and editor. He is best known for designing unconventional book jackets and book covers.

S TA N D - U P C O M E D I A NBorn on September 15, 1972, in London, England, Jimmy Carr is known for

his signature laugh, deadpan delivery, dark humor, and the use of his edgy one-liners. He is also a writer, actor, and presenter of radio and television.

CHIP KIDD

Comic books were Chip Kidd’s way into graphic design. Batman and Superman comics were amongst his earliest memories. Born in 1964, Kidd never outgrew his passion for comics. As a child, he immersed himself in popular American culture through daytime television and began an impressive life-long collection of Batman merchandise. Educated at Penn State, he started designing covers for Knopf (an imprint of Random House) in 1986, where he was responsible for 75 book covers a year. He is still employed at Knopf, where he is an art director. He also oversees the production of comic book covers for Pantheon, another subsidy of Random House. His interests in comic books, graphic novels, and pop culture have been a large influence on his work. Kidd freelanced for various firms and produced more than 70 book jackets annually. He has published 4 books, all of which he designed himself. His highly productive career has allowed him to work with many celebrities and authors. His book covers continue to influence designers and pop culture and many of them are widely imitated.

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JIMMy CARR

After earning four ‘A’ grades at the GCE Advanced Level exams, Carr read political science at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. Jimmy Carr hails from Buckinghamshire and seemed to be destined for a career in marketing until a relatively early midlife crisis made him turn to comedy. Carr does stand-up tours continuously annually, taking only five weeks off between them. In 2003, he sold out an entire month’s performances of his Edinburgh Festival show Charm Offensive by the second day of the festival, and received 5-star reviews from four major newspapers. He’s also presented Your Face or Mine and Distraction, for which he’s been nominated for a prestigious Rose D’Or award. An original and distinctive comedian, he continues to be successful in his live work.

“My job is to know what does a story looks like. They all need to look like something. They all need a face for audience to get a first impression for what they are getting into.” Chip Kidd

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“I like to write a joke without any fat on it. The shorter the better. I cater for people with ADD” Jimmy Carr

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DCHIP KIDD

First impressions are everything for Chip Kidd, his life’s work is based on it. A piece of the cover is to serve another piece of art, which is the story itself. Chip Kidd is very objective in his design approach. He doesn’t have a specific design style, as his design adapts to what is required for the book. Kidd’s contribution extends far beyond a single cover. The fusion of story and graphics that drew him into comics as a child continues to drive his creativity today, allowing him to conjure narrative power from design’s most basic elements.

Kidd has a humble and self-deprecating attitude and he has never accepted credit for his work. For instance, he declared he made his career on the back of authors and that he is fortunate enough to work on Cormac McCarthy’s books and not the other way round. The typography within his books is used subtly, and sometimes blatantly to make points alongside the narrative contained within. Kidd knows his audience and his design caters to their understanding.

His designs and writing have a certain humor to them; he can almost predict what people think and his design is based on how people would perceive it. He might be absurd and all over the place, but he is very disciplined in his approach to design.

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Carr’s jokes are very clever. It’s never obvious but he always knows his audience well enough to make them understand it. That’s the key to what makes him successful. While most comedians have stories in their act, he has short, indirect jokes accompanied by his funny facial expressions. He has a very disciplined approach to his act and everything is well thought out and he is always well prepared.

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TJ IMMy CARR

Jimmy Carr cracks a lot of short jokes during his live shows. He approaches each one as if he were solving a puzzle. There are always 300 jokes in each of his sets; he calls it ‘joke mining’ and it serves as a form of therapy to him. Jimmy Carr is known as the hardest-working man in comedy, performing on more than 200 nights a year.

Carr has a reputation for performing jokes that can cause offense, but he doesn’t regard his material as being gratuitously offensive. They may be about rape, pedophilia, incest, or obesity, but to him, the jokes are simply about jokes to the point where the subject is almost abstract in his imagination.

Chip Kidd and Jimmy Carr have similar personalities with very different backgrounds. A graphic designer and a comedian are different in the fact that one of them designs book covers and the other tells jokes, but the obvious similarity between them is their humor. While Jimmy Carr is a comedian, humor is a big part of Chip Kidd’s designs. He uses humor objectively to convey his message. The other major similarity comes from how they approach their work. Chip Kidd looks at it as a problem he is trying to fix, and Jimmy Carr looks at it like a puzzle he is trying to solve.

L E S S I S

Both of them are very clever in their work and know their audience very well. Chip Kidd famously stated, “A designer should never treat his audience like morons.” You don’t have to reveal too much. This fits perfectly with Jimmy Carr as well. Both of them are very clever in their execution and their work is clever, but they know their audience well enough to make it easy for them to understand it. They both tell short stories in their work. Chip Kidd has a task to show a story in each spread, while Jimmy Carr has 300 short jokes in each act.

Both of them use as little as possible to covey a story in the simplest way. They teach us the power of jocularity to connect with an audience. Kidd and Carr both show us the value of ‘less is more’. This duo’s main similarity comes with their approach, which is more methodical. They know what they want and they work hard to accomplish it with as little as possible. In the end, they teach us that you don’t need a lengthy story to connect with an audience.

Most importantly, you need to know your audience, understand the problem, and solve it. They both love solving problems which is why they are who they are.

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