Without doubt this book would not have existed without the vision and willingness of my publisher Laurence King, and in particular Jo Lightfoot who first commissioned this book; Jo, you have been a truly wonderful and supportive collaborator and many thanks for your patience in a book that took far too long for me to finish. Also at Laurence King, thanks to my editor Gaynor Sermon who has been tolerant beyond words while remaining supportive; thank you for helping me fill in all the gaps and again for being so patient. Thanks to Jennifer Hudson, for her help and guidance in finding case studies for the materials – it was also a pleasure to work with someone I have so admired since I was a design student. Lastly thanks to Laurence King, who I know had a passion to see this book published.
Thanks also to photographer Brendan Olley, who shot some of the case studies, to the book designer Marianne Noble at Studio Aparte, to copy editor Lindsay Kaubi and indexer Angela Koo. I am grateful to my own team at Chris Lefteri Design who, without always knowing, have provided answers and feedback generally and been wonderful people to work with, and for being the best CMF team and experts in the world: thank you Young Jin, Gemma, Fanny, Gaia, Camilla and JJ. Thanks in particular to Jane, who helped research some of the hard-core facts in this book.