Adrian Shaughnessy is a British graphic designer, writer, and educator, best known for bridging design practice with critical thought. A self-taught creative, he co-founded the influential studio Intro and later the publishing imprint Unit Editions, producing landmark works on design culture. His 2005 book How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul remains a favorite worldwide.
Adrian teaches at the Visual Communication program of the Royal College of Art in London as an associate lecturer. He has contributed essays, critiques and editorial work across major design publications, and under Unit Editions has published monographs on figures such as Herb Lubalin, Ken Garland, Lance Wyman, and Paula Scher.
From the conversation
Books
• Graphic Design: A User’s Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy — https://link.amazon/B05Puiv8i
• Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer by Adrian Shaughnessy — https://link.amazon/B0dBIwQr9
• How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy — https://link.amazon/B0d1EAjGc
• Manuals 2: Design & Identity Guidelines edited by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook — https://link.amazon/B0bKT5ClB
• Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work — https://www.thamesandhudson.com/products/margaret-calvert-woman-at-work
• Paula Scher: Works edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy — https://link.amazon/B0b3r1WWO
• Pentagram: Living by Design by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook — https://link.amazon/B00bN8m8B
• Studio Culture Now edited by Mark Sinclair — https://link.amazon/B0a6oneqy
• What Is a Designer: Things, Places, Messages by Norman Potter — https://link.amazon/B03nyvit5
People and studios
• Brody Associates — https://brody-associates.com
• Dada Projects — https://dada-projects.com
• Intro — https://www.intro-uk.com
• Office of Possibilities on Design Discipline — https://designdisciplin.com/p/op
• Spin — https://spin.co.uk
Talks and education
• Adrian Shaughnessy on Design Education Talks — https://newartschool.education/2025/01/02/design-education-talks-ep-93-adrian-shaughnessy
• Resonance FM — https://resonancefm.com
• Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art — https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/visual-communication-ma
Design tools
• Framer — https://framer.com
• InDesign — https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html
• Next.js — https://nextjs.org
• Webflow — https://webflow.com
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https://uniteditions.com | https://x.com/AJWShaughnessy | https://shaughnessyworks-prints.com
