Adrian Shaughnessy is a designer, writer, and publisher. Along with Tony Brook, he co-founded Unit Editions, an independent publishing company that specializes in design books and monographs for people like Paula Scher and Herb Lubalin. He’s written for publications like Eye and Design Observer and his collected essays were published as a book, also called Scratching the Surface, in 2013. In this episode, Adrian and I talk about his transition from designing to writing, how the design discourse has changed over the course of his career, and the value of a strong design criticism.