I think passion has become a bit of a graphic design cliché. It is often used to mean stubbornness, or narrowness, or insularity. I try to use the word to mean a love of graphic design. By that I mean maintaining the excitement you had when you first encountered design. But that’s not an easy thing to maintain. At various points in my life, design has suddenly seemed unimportant. Yet, I’ve always managed to rekindle my interest, and despite a few ‹bust-ups› I’m still in love with graphic design.

Paradoxically, I think passion is best maintained by having an interest in the world beyond graphic design. One of the reasons why graphic designers have a poor public image is because they are often seen as only being interested in graphic design. The best graphic designers are not obsessed with graphic design to the exclusion of everything else. I also think that the best graphic designers have what I’ve called in the book ‹cultural awareness.› The thing I like best about being a designer is moving from one subject to another. But you can only do this if you have an awareness of what is going on in the world.

Adrian Shaughnessy.