About This Book
Design once took its logic from mass manufacturing. That grip has loosened. Designers now reach the tools of production, distribution and digital media directly, and the old opposition between industrial design and craft has quietly dissolved into something harder to name. Scott Klinker calls the result fine design, and this book is his guide to working within it. Drawing on more than twenty years leading Cranbrook Academy of Art's 3D Design programme, he sets out a framework organised around material intelligence and authorship rather than industrial scalability—one that makes room for speculative projects, self-initiated research and work made for exhibition rather than sale. Reflective essays alternate with workbook-style exercises, and the book is illustrated throughout with student and alumni work. It prescribes no single method; it asks designers to find their own scale of production and their own voice.
Key Features
- Reflective essays paired with workbook-style studio exercises readers can work through
- Richly illustrated with inventive student and alumni work from Cranbrook's 3D Design programme
- Foreword by Andrew Blauvelt, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum
- Draws on more than two decades of studio teaching and practice
What You'll Discover
- A framework for studio practice built on material intelligence rather than industrial scalability
- How to think about authorship and the designer's own voice without collapsing into ego-driven work
- Ways of approaching production at scales other than mass manufacture
- Exercises for building your own creative tools rather than adopting someone else's method
About the Author
Scott Klinker is a designer and educator who led the 3D Design and Industrial Design programme at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 2001 until 2025. Trained as an industrial designer, he has worked for Ericsson and IDEO and licensed furniture, lighting and accessories to manufacturers including Alessi and Landscape Forms. His own practice sits between design, architecture, art and craft.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Dimensions: 17.0 × 24.0 cm
- Pages: 264
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789083657509
- Publisher: Set Margins
Perfect For
Emerging designers finding their footing after study, design educators building studio curricula, and transdisciplinary makers working across craft, industry and art.