How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul - Adrian Shaughnessy
TITLE AVAILABLE AT
Counter Print
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
TITLE INFORMATION
Author: Adrian Shaughnessy
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Year Published: 2010
Dimensions: 7.5 in x 9 in
Pages: 176
Written by London-based designer, Adrian Shaughnessy focuses on the how-to’s of becoming a successful graphic designer from thinking skills, education, getting a job, establishing a career, owning a studio, and where design is headed towards the future. he also features several interviews with several prolific graphic designers at the end of the book. Shaughnessy’s writing is concise, insightful, and logically charming, making this book easy to read, hard to put down, and informational no matter what stage of your career you’re in.
There are a lot of enjoyable qualities about this book. Primarily, the writing is beautifully logical. Shaughnessy’s writing is matter-of-fact and it doesn’t rely on descriptive, prettified, words to add to his messages. It is comfortably straightforward. his writing is as if you are sitting down and talking with your favorite professor.
This book is also full of new insight that many other graphic design books don’t touch on. For example, he discusses the different types of jobs young designers can work in, and he focuses on the concept of young designers feeling nervous about working with more skilled designers. He also discusses what it’s like working freelance, or as head of a company, along with the struggles of finding work and reaching out to others about receiving work. Although most graphic design books discuss the probability of this happening, they usually just suggest making initial contact via mail or email and then leave it at that. But Shaughnessy disregards this and tells the truth about promotional tools to help get one’s name out there, the significance of an outstanding portfolio, the necessity of having a personality, and the importance of doing research of every company and designer one reaches out to in order to make an impressive first impression. He also states that the goal of achieving a meeting is so much more important than immediately landing a job, because initial communication can lead to a longer lasting working relationship, and lead to you work one wants to do.
Although this book reserves all use of imagery until the end, with the interviews, it does not read like a typical book. With the experimental use of the grid, typography, pacing, and paragraph placements, the book reads excellently well. This is something that is not seen in most design-focused books, where there is usually more emphasis placed on imagery, and improper grid usage. There is great detail and attention that has been placed in this typography that needs to be appreciated. Although the type hierarchy is relatively minimal, it shows how many levels of hierarchy can be achieved by using a well designed typeface intelligently. Another detail is the lack of paragraph splits from page to page. Each sentence and paragraph ends on that page, removing the need to be continuously reading while jumping from the bottom of one page to the top of next. Although readers should be quite used to having to do that since a lot of books designs incorporate it, it does make a huge difference in terms of readability, comprehension, and retention of information. Allowing a pause from page to page provides a quick second for the eyes to refocus, and for the brain to process everything that has just been read.
Shaughnessy states excellent point after excellent point throughout his entire book, but he does make some statements that go against the grain of the mainstream design world that aren’t favorable. One of these statements is self-initiated work won’t get designers the work that they want to do. One of the biggest suggestions that experienced designers consistently advocate to younger designers is to initiate self-driven work that they are interested in doing. Although this work is usually done on the side for little to no money, this work helps in gaining experience for what designers want to do. It’s the passion projects that keep them sane and can encourage them to work harder for what they want to do. But Shaughnessy sees it as pointless because, “they are rarely taken seriously by employers or potential clients” because it does not yield monetary results that clients want to see to ensure that the work will pay for itself. He also states that self-initiated work, “might be an orgy of self-indulgence and self-absorption.” He states this because self-driven work is usually created at the full discretion of the designer who will face no criticism or feedback from a “real” client, therefore it allows the designer to do whatever they choose without consequence. Although this seems terrible, there is something immensely beneficial for a designer to create work without consequence. It provides a space of comfort for exploration that a client may not allow, it allows for testing out new solutions to old problems in a nonjudgmental environment, and it allows for filling in the gaps that the designer’s day job is not providing. Yes, perhaps finding a job or career that will encourage the designer to work in the specific area they want to will yield more productive results, but most jobs don’t hire without experience within that area, and if they do, it’s due to great generosity and/or connections.
Another unfavorable statement occurs when he is conducting an interview with Paul Sahre, where Shaughnessry states, “illustration is mainly used as a decorative space-filler.” There is no further elaboration after this statement, but Paul Sahre does not refute it, which is troublesome because he does a lot of illustration work that serves more than acting just as a decoration. Matter of fact, most illustration serves a purpose as a visual equivalent in telling the narrative. Although a lot of illustration, in the past and present, can and does serve as decoration, a lot more illustration serves a more important purpose.
Despite these two statements, Shaughnessy does share, infinitely, more nuggets of wisdom. He is not afraid to stand against the norm in the design community which makes his writing important and inspiring. Some of these nuggets include acknowledging the existence and plausibility of design graduates jumping into the world of freelance immediately following school, positive recognition of design thinking, the importance of graphic designers writing, and the important of graphic designers taking a stand and not being afraid of being opinionated.
Overall, no matter where you stand in your graphic design career, you will, without a doubt, gain some type of wisdom from this book. It retails for about $25 new, making it an excellent value for the amount of knowledge, advice, and design inspiration this book holds. It is the perfect book to take with you to a cafe, or to read at your desk, and highlight all of the information you find important.