Black v-neck jumpers, black chinos and Converse trainers were the order of the day when I arrived at the Printworks in Manchester for the latest D&AD president's lecture, hosted by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook, aka Unit Editions.

Speaking to a packed audience they took us through their own professional design careers, influences and achievements as professional designers at Intro and Spin, and how this lead them to start the publishing company Unit Editions. Described by them as a 'digital publishing company', it was fascinating to hear them talk about something they felt they couldn't have achieved even five years ago, and which owes a large amount of its success to free media and the internet; things which are often cited as being nails in the coffin of traditional publishing.

They then explained what brought about the first two Unit Editions publications: 'Studio Culture' and 'Unit: Design/Research 01 – Folkways'. The second of the two is an ongoing project, publishing a regular 'research' paper into subjects which interest them but might not justify a whole book.

As well as discussing what has been they also treated the audience to a sneak preview of what is to come, with the next two publications; a book entitled 'Supergraphics', on the subject of an architectural movement of the same name, and the next Unit: Design/Research paper, looking at the 60s British Modernist magazine 'Form.'

For once it was really refreshing to hear people speak about design for designers in an unapologetic way, exploring the idea of authorship and pushing ahead with a high quality publishing house, in what is predominantly becoming an age of digitally-dominated distribution.

I thoroughly recommend getting out to see these two talk if you have the chance. More info about Unit Editions can be found at uniteditions.com