Adrian Shaughnessy set to teach at RCA

Shaughnessy, who starts in October, says the appointment follows years of conversation with Brody, with whom he ’shares many opinions about the way design should be approached by under-graduate and postgraduate students’.

Brody was appointed head of communication art and design at the RCA in March and succeeds Professor Dan Fern in the post in January 2011, but appears to have already started appointing new staff.

Taking the visiting tutor position will be a departure from a career in commercial work for Shaughnessy. ’In the past, I’ve always turned down invitations to teach at undergraduate level. I don’t really see myself as a teacher,’ he says.

’Neville has got some ambitious plans for the future, but I will start by meshing into the syllabus,’ says Shaughnessy, who will teach graphic design and work closely with visiting professor Nick Bell.

Bell has already raised the status and focus of graphic design at the college, says Shaughnessy, who is now looking to ’accelerate that process’. By building a ’progressive definition of graphic design’, Shaughnessy hopes that students can be equipped with the skills for a broader societal role than design courses currently afford them.

’The RCA has always produced broadly based designers with vision and self-reliance, but the world changes every five minutes, so we need to review that definition constantly,’ says Shaughnessy.