Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer based in London.
At the moment he is teaching at the RCA playing a visiting professor role, and work in his design studio “ShaughnessyWork”.
In 1989 he co-founded the design company “Intro”. He left the studio to write the book “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul”.
He is also a founding partner in Unit Edition, a publishing company books on design and visual culture.
His latest book is “Supergraphics – Trasforming space: Graphic design for Wall, Buildings & Spaces. The book is about an architectural movement that took place in the seventies called “Supergraphics”. They used to apply paint and graphics on buildings. This was a way to interact with the buildings.
Shaughnessy also has a radio show called “Graphic Design” on Resonance FM Radio. Adrian invites graphic designers to talk about their work and choose tracks to broadcast.
In the talk of tonight Adrian shows us how his work has changed in time (from the CD to the internet). He told us how he was feeling when he left “Intro” to write “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul”. This book somehow changed the life of Adrian, that decided to become an active graphic designer: writing books, teaching in schools, working in radio…
In the last part of the talk, Adrian read to us “The 15 Paradoxes of Design” in which he explains his point of view about graphic design and life.
1. There’s no such thing as bad as clients. Only bad designers.
2. The best way to become a better designer is to become a client.
3. If we want to educate our clients about design, we must first educate ourselves about our clients.
4. If we want to make money as a graphic designers, we must concentrate on the work not the money.
5. For graphic designers, possessing verbal skills is as important as possessing good visual skills.
6. Clients will only listen to us, if and when, we bother to listen to them.
7. Most ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but because they are badly presented.
8. Designers who use the argument — ‘I know best, because I am a professional’, are usually unprofessional designers.
9. We often imagine that all the good projects go to other people. Not so, in fact, nearly all jobs start off as neither good nor bad.
10. Designers never like being wrong: but to admit being wrong is one of the best ways to gain respect and trust.
11. The best way to do great work is to be tough and domineering with our clients. In fact, the opposite is true.
12. The best way to run a graphic design studio and get the best out of designers is to put yourself last.
13. The best way to self-promote is to avoid talking about yourself.
14. If we believe in nothing, then our clients will have no reason to believe in us.
15. A designer’s brain is capable of much more than making things look pretty.
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