Adrian Shaughnessy - Lecture series 7

Adrian Shaughnessy 28.04.09

Having all ready read Adrian Shaughnessy's book "How to be a Graphic Designer without losing your soul" I was intrigued to see what he would be talking about at the lecture last week. Shaughnessy is a self taught graphic designer, he explained at the lecture how he developed his skills by looking at the work of other designers. After visiting a design school he realized that his work as a designer might have been better if he had gone to design school because it would have given him the opportunity to experiment within design.

After working as a designer for fifty years Shaughnessy decided to become a righter because he wanted to be in full control of the content that he would be working on. Since becoming a righter Shaughnessy has written numerous books including 'Display, Copy, Only' and his latest book 'Graphic Designer a users manual' not forgetting 'How o be a Graphic Designer without losing your soul.'
Shaughnessy then went on to explain the reason behind righting 'How to be a Graphic Designer without losing your soul.' The book talks about everything related to the design industry except
design it's self covering subjects such as cultural awareness, communication and integrity.

Cultural Awareness

• We all need to be involved in our surroundings in order of producing focused design.
• Be self focused but not narrow minded.
• 'Our life should be research'
• After all you may never know who may be your next client, we need to be culturally aware to be able to face any given brief we may undertake.

Communication

• As well as possessing a cultural awareness of the world beyond graphic design, the modern graphic designer needs to be a skilled communicator.
• The aspect of design work is frequently underestimated. An ability to see words clearly, pointedly and persuasively is at all times relevant to design work.
• 'We do things because we like them, but we could never give this as a reason for our design'
• everything we produce ends up in a presentation.
• What ever that we produce for clients in our career it will never look like what they were expecting which will create tension. Defusing this situation by communicating will result in a rounded and objective final product. When a good idea is rejected it is normally the presentation that is rejected rather then the idea.

Integrity

• We need to stand up for our believes.
• Unless we believe in anything then no one will believe in us.
• No one will ever need to hear your opinion unless you develop one.

Adrian Shaughnessy then discussed some of the project that he had undertaken in his career as a designer.

• A series of cd covers for Muse record label
• Editor of 'The Vroom' magazine
• Art Directing his own agency Shaughnessy Works
• Also contributes to Eye, Design Week, Creative Review, Grafik and the AIGA magazines

Adrian Shaughnessy will be setting up a new publishing company called 'Unit Edition' later this year and with a new book called 'studio culture' due to come out in October.

I enjoyed this lecture and felt that having met Adrian Shaughnessy and read his book I will certainly be looking forward to read his other books in future. It was inspiring to find a designer who has moved on to develop his editorial skills rather than stick to design throughout his career. Shaughnessy has a clear understanding of what he wants out of his career and has generated success In every profession that he has encountered which is a great achievement in its self.
I will admit that from my first encounter of Saughnessy's book I was not the biggest fan of reading but the combination of the interactive layout (designed by Bibliotheque) and the humor of Shaughnessy dialect within the book caught my attention which encouraged me to read the entire book. I never really understood the need to read but this book taught me how important it is to have an all round understanding of general society especially working in our environment. I know that within the industry there has been a lot of controversy over this book but I'm grate full for this book and would recommend to all design enthusiasts. I'm also very aware that this book will become an useful guide throughout my design career and it's reassuring comments will help make complicated decisions in future.