I really enjoy designing books for debut authors. There’s a lot to be said for having a clean slate both in terms of expectation and visual language. Being briefed on the new book for Kazuo Ishiguro places you firmly in the opposite camp with massive expectation on all departments to deliver the new bestseller. Unusually, the lead time was very generous, with the manuscript being slid over a pub table for us to read well over a year before the March 2021 publication date. I say “us” because the whole team was briefed to produce visuals initially. I’ll only focus on my contributions here but let me say that what was produced by the others was exquisitely beautiful and shattered my self-confidence.