Room Number Editions present West is the Best, a new and original book by designer Joran Briand. The result of more than ten years of travel, this book traces encounters with Californian, Mexican, and French creators whose work maintains an intimate dialogue with the ocean. From Jean Jullien to John Van Hamersveld, from Julian Schnabel to Ronan Bouroullec, West is the Best sketches a sensitive cartography where art and surf culture intersect.

Far from the clichés of surf magazines filled with perfect waves and fantasized barrels, West is the Best is a spiritual project—a quest for horizons and immersion. Over twelve years, designer Joran Briand explored the Californian, Mexican, and French west coasts to reveal ways of living, creating, and working in connection with the ocean.

Throughout this long-form journey, he met creatives from multiple disciplines—artists, architects, photographers, designers, fashion designers, dancers—and shared suspended moments with them, both in their studios and on their favorite waves.

Halfway between a moodboard and a road book, West is the Best unfolds like an exquisite corpse, woven through encounters. An open, almost organic book, it reads like a poem in motion: an endless journey westward. Within its pages are simple, sincere stories—those of creators driven by a desire for elsewhere, in search of a return to what truly matters. Attuned to their sensations, they nourish their practice through the experience of oceanic nature, self-discovery, and human connection.

This book champions the idea that another way of living and creating is possible—more sensitive, freer, and deeply connected to the ocean and its natural elements.

West is the Best is a hymn to contemplation, hedonism, and creative escape.

Date : 2026
Editor : Roomnumber
Size : 165 x 230 mm
Pages : 368
Print : Snel Grafics
Partners : Librairie Le Grand Jeu, Gilbert Arrès
Diffusion : Arts & Papers