Sir Terence Conran's Life in Design to Octopus

Octopus is publishing My Life in Design by designer, restaurateur and businessman Sir Terence Conran.

It tells the story of the Conran brand from the founding of the Conran Design Studio 60 years ago to the creation of the Design Museum, now moving to a new space on High Street Kensington in November this year.

The illustrated book, comprising more than 400 images including from private and unseen collections, will consider the areas where Conran and his design team have made a lasting impact on the way we live our lives, including the founding of Habitat, which introduced affordable homeware to the high street, his restaurants, and his talent for rescuing and regenerating abandoned buildings and bringing them back into exciting new use.

It includes an introducion from internationally renowned designer, Thomas Heatherwick, who identifies his mentor Conran as "a modernist who, together with a tiny handful of others, gave us a new vision of Britain and ourselves. From a country with questionable furnishings, dysfunctional appliances and fixed ideas of what a home is, it has become a place famous for its design and some of the best food in the world. Without Terence this transformation would not have taken place".

Octopus publisher Alison Starling acquired world rights direct from the author. 

Starling said: "As someone who grew up with Habitat and The House Book it has felt a huge privilege to work with Terence on this gloriously lively, opinionated and visually stimulating account of his design career in all its many guises across sixty years. From introducing the duvet to Britain to rescuing a whole swathe of abandoned Victorian buildings in east London, Terence’s influence on all our lives has been huge and this is the only book to tell the story of his remarkable career in his own words. It is particularly fitting that My Life in Design is published in time for the opening of the Design Museum at its new home in a world-class building with the space to celebrate the design and architecture of Britain."

Conran commented: "I've enjoyed a colourful lifetime in design spanning well over sixty years but I have never comprehensively put everything together in one comprehensive piece of work, looking at how Conran design has evolved and matured, influencing the world around us. I have founded and led four design groups, from fairly modest beginnings as a textile designer and furniture maker in the 1950s to running a global design business working on projects all over the world most recently. It has been an absolute joy to look back on the history of Conran design, to remember how bold and ambitious we have always been and tell the stories of the many brilliant designers I have worked alongside as well as the creative businesses that we worked for."

My Life in Design will be published by Conran Octopus on 8th September 2016 at £30 in hardback.