Shaobo Li graduated from the College of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University in 1994 and stayed on as a teacher after graduation. In 2004, he was a visiting scholar and course teacher at the Danish Design School and joined the Mervyn Kurlansky Studio. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Li specializes in design fields including fonts, branding, and the cultural and creative industries. He currently serves as dean and professor of the College of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University, president of the Hunan Province Designer Association, chief expert of the Hunan Province Chinese Character Culture and Art Research Base, and an academic member of the Chinese Character Font Design and Research Center of the Ministry of Education.

In recent years, Li has led the typeface design and research program for China's large commercial aircraft. He presided over the project “Artistic Design of Domestic Kirin Operating System”, which was fully applied to the first open-source computer desktop operating system in China. In close cooperation with the type foundries Fangzheng and Hanyi, he developed the first domestic geometric-style font, “Fangzheng Jun Heiti”, which has been selected by large institutions and enterprises such as the National Center for the Performing Arts and has become the brand font for Starbucks and Xiaomi Car. He also developed the first set of regional cultural fonts, “Hanyi Baman”, which was selected as the “Hanyi Font of the Year” and has become one of the most popular fonts on the internet.

As art director, he designed the “Xiaoxiang Today” floats for the 70th anniversary of the National Day, which were awarded the “Huamei Award” by the headquarters of the National Day celebration and the “Design Innovation Award” by the Hunan Provincial Committee. He also designed the Changsha Metro Digital Art Museum, which has become a popular check-in spot in Changsha and has won numerous international awards.