The stories brought together in this volume highlight the idea that every distinct mark has the power to move us all forward—the power to thrust a cuisine, a conversation, or an industry into a brighter, bolder future.

Too often, visions of the future are centered around speed and efficiency. There is a notion that we must maximize every minute, becoming increasingly like the machines and technology that dominate our lives. But we believe there is another path.

It’s the great unknown. The undiscovered country. An arrow pointing inexorably forward, and where we will all spend the rest of our lives. It’s the future, and we believe it will be defined by an entirely new kind of design.

We don’t live in an either/or world. We live in an and world. A world of seduction and substance. Black and white. Masculine and feminine. Asphalt and earth. It’s raw and it’s refined. And it’s on this knife’s edge between seeming opposites where we encounter a powerful tension that provokes an even more powerful desire.