[1][2] Shaughnessy’s book How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul[3][4] has been reprinted multiple times and published in several languages.
[6][7] He co-founded the design group Intro in 1988[8] where its main source of work was the record industry, with clients including Primal Scream and Stereolab.
After 15 years, Shaughnessy left the studio to purse an interest in writing about design and visual culture, lecturing and independent consulting.
[14] Notable articles include a survey of ECM record covers[15] for Eye, 'The Politics of Desire and Looting'[16] for Design Observer and a profile of Daniel Eatock for the Eames Institute.
[17] He has written for Creative Review, It's Nice That, PRINT, Etapes, Idea (Japan) and contributed a monthly column to Design Week.
[19] Shaughnessy has also written obituaries of leading graphic designers for The Guardian – most notably on Pentagram co-founder Colin Forbes,[20] Ken Garland[21] and Phil Baines.
[27] The company was notable for establishing its reputation online and via social media[28] and for producing a range of illustrated research papers (the first of which was on Ronald Clyne's work for the Folkways record label) as well as books.
Shaughnessy works as the imprint’s editorial director, to date writing and editing the majority of the published titles, including monographs on a range of well-known designers such as Paula Scher: Works,[29][30] Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer, Lance Wyman: The Monograph[31] and Vaughan Oliver: Archive.
[32] In 2013 Shaughnessy published a book of his own essays – Scratching the Surface[33] which covered a range of subjects including education, internships, the definition of practice, the value of awards and socially responsible design.