Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy’s refreshing perspective on their love for classic format, under-the-radar graphics and their newest endeavour, publishing company Unit Editions.
D&AD’s education intern gives her tag-along perspective:
Before the Presidents’ Lecture, the pub next door is mostly empty. Brook and Shaughnessy sit at a table in the corner, in the midst of a clutch of students. Design mavericks at the top of their game, few are better qualified to share valuable knowledge of the industry.
Beginning a career in design is no mean feat, with more graduates leaving art schools in 2009 than ever before. Brook and Shaughnessy are dispatching some sage advice; Portfolio, application letters and interview techniques are all being covered in detail. Handy tidbits such as “avoid using a ring-bound portfolio, it’s what everyone uses, and shows a lack of imagination” and “always hand-write the address on your application letter, it’s more personal and harder for the receiver to ignore”, are being furiously jotted into sketchpads. I’m more interested to note that, in their opinion “…one of the most important jobs in the design studio is how you answer the phone.”
It is this no-nonsense, practical and social approach that makes this pair unique in their outlook on critical design. Keen to underline that they’re not academics, they believe in the need to bring design theory back down to earth. They’ve teamed up with Stockport College to share their experiences and inspirations; removing the pretence and jargon, which can so often alienate the subject’s new-comers.
The President’s Lecture at Manchester’s Print Works revolved around the pair’s enormous spectrum of influences and self-initiated projects. Their newest enterprise Unit Editions, is the love-child of a long-lasting courtship of all things Graphic Design. From inspiring theoretical texts, to the cluttered diversity of professional design studios and Folk-Modernists of the 1960s; they’re keen to share their interest in everything they feel has slipped beneath the Graphic Design radar.
Unit Editions is born out of a desire to marry impeccably art-directed style and visuals with substance to boot. Their latest endeavour, Unit: Design/Research, are a series of small publications that feature subjects in which they take a personal interest; indulging joys encountered in some of the over-looked corners of the design world.
But what on earth- you might reasonably ask- would possess you to start a publishing company at the height of a digital and technological revolution? When bookshops are closing and with content freely available online, is there a market for new design publications?
It’s the tactility and longevity that the traditional book provides, and Brook and Shaughnessy believe that it’s something that can’t be replaced: “The internet is an incredible resource, but it doesn’t have the permanence that a physical book does. Visual grazing online is too easily lost and forgotten in the haze of the digital Cloud. A book is always there, on your shelf or open on your desk… radiating inspiration.”
Success, they agree, is also dependent on harmonizing the business with the virtues of the Web. Unit Editions has a strong online presence, and they’re successfully utilising the internet’s non-capitalist philosophy. Their constantly updated Flikr stream bursts with content- photographs and detailed scans of the duos latest publications and inspiring discoveries. “We are living in something of a golden age,” they say, “Graphic design no longer requires a client.”
What Brook is keen to emphasise is the importance of self-initiated projects- telling the story of how his first motion graphic experiment resulted in winning an identity design job with Channel 4.
‘Take a risk’ is the message for the Industry’s young hopefuls. Unit Editions is the case in point of how a bit of passion and bravery can result in something great.
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