Perfect Imperfect

Perfect Imperfect takes as its founding principle the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, advocating the beauty to be found in imperfection, impermanence and the authentic. Importantly this is done without losing sight of the benefits of living in the 21st century, where designers are merging digital technology with the handmade, rethinking how to use space as well as accommodating the natural world, which is always giving birth to new creative expressions. As this collaborative process involved working across continents, the authors created a list of words and phrases that defined how to curate the work they wanted to include in this stunning book: mutability; irregularity; unfinished and incomplete; void; the effects of accident; unpretentious; simplicity; contrasts; and Leonard Koren's idea that 'beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness'. These words and phrases split the book into visual sections: Spirit of Nature; Strange Beauty; Mark of Hand; Deep Shadow; Weathering & Decay; and Incomplete and Irregular. Perfect Imperfect is a beautiful, inspirational book, with thought-provoking text by Karen McCartney and stunning visuals by Sharyn Cairns and Glen Proebstel. It is a celebration of accident, curation, collection, hesitation, collaboration, reuse, reimagining and true originality. It explores an established aesthetic in a new way, as illustrated by the homes and studios of creatives all over the world. It embraces current design objects alongside well-worn ones, and features interior settings that mix comfort, design and an off-beat beauty.