Adrian Shaughnessy

Adrian Shaughnessy is a British graphic designer, writer and publisher.

Shaughnessy co-founded the design studio Intro in 1988 and the publishing company Unit Editions in 2009.

Shaughnessy’s book How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul has been reprinted multiple times and published in several languages.

A self-taught designer, an early obsession with music led Shaughnessy to an interest in record sleeve design.

He co-founded the design group Intro in 1988 where its main source of work was the record industry, with clients including Primal Scream and Stereolab.

The studio was an early exponent of multi-disciplinary working, combining digital filmmaking with interactive design and other digital modes of expression.

Since his first piece of writing appeared in Eye magazine in 1995, Shaughnessy has written regularly for the international design press.

Notable articles include a survey of ECM record covers for Eye, 'The Politics of Desire and Looting'  for Design Observer and a profile of Daniel Eatock for the Eames Institute.

He has written for Creative Review, It's Nice That, PRINT, Etapes, Idea (Japan) and contributed a monthly column to Design Week.

Sampler: Contemporary Music Graphics, 1999.

(Laurence King Publishing)

Sampler 2: Art, Pop and Contemporary Music Graphics, 2000.

(Laurence King Publishing)

During his time as creative director of Intro, Shaughnessy edited and authored three books on contemporary record covers (the Sampler series ) and a studio monograph, Display Copy Only, published by Laurence King Publishing in 2001.

After 15 years, Shaughnessy left the studio to purse an interest in writing about design and visual culture, lecturing and independent consulting.

Display Copy Only: A Book of Intro Work, 2001.

(Laurence King Publishing)

In 2005 Shaughnessy wrote How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul.

How To Be A Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul, 2005 (revised 2010).

(Laurence King Publishing)

From 2006 to 2009 he was founding editor of Varoom (published by the AOI) and in 2014 appeared on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze to discuss The Moral Limits of Advertising.

Shaughnessy has also written obituaries of leading graphic designers for The Guardian – most notably on Pentagram co-founder Colin Forbes and Ken Garland.

He is an occasional contributor to The Wire.

In 2009, Shaughnessy co-founded Unit Editions with Tony Brook and Patricia Finegan of Spin "prompted by frustration at the quality of design books available and a faith that quality in both design and writing would find a market".

The company was notable for establishing its reputation online and via social media and for producing a range of illustrated research papers (the first of which was on Ronald Clyne's work for the Folkways record label) as well as books.

Shaughnessy works as the imprint’s editorial director, to date writing and editing the majority of the published titles, including monographs on a range of well-known designers such as Paula Scher: Works, Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer, Lance Wyman: The Monograph and Vaughan Oliver: Archive.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual, 2009.

(Laurence King Publishing)

Studio Culture: The Secret Life of the Graphic Design Studio, 2009.

(Unit Editions)

A second updated edition was published in 2010.

The book has been reprinted many times and appears in numerous languages, including Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and various European languages.

Since first publication, the book features regularly in lists of recommended titles for graphic designers.

In 2013 Shaughnessy published a book of his own essays – Scratching the Surface which covered a range of subjects including education, internships, the definition of practice, the value of awards and socially responsible design.

Unit Editions was nominated in the graphic design section of the 'Beazley Designs of the Year' exhibition at London's Design Museum in 2017 and included in Creative Review 's Creative Leaders list in 2018.

Its most recent publication is Pentagram: Living by Design.

In 2023, the Unit Editions back catalogue was acquired by Thames & Hudson.

Shaughnessy is an associate lecturer at the Royal College of Art on the Visual Communication programme where he has run a series of short courses – physical and online – in typography and editorial design.

He also regularly gives talks on the international design conference circuit, most recently on the subject of AI and creativity.

Since 2017, Shaughnessy has worked as a consultant for the Beijing-based School of International Art (SIA).