Craft-based Design

On Practical Knowledge and Manual Creativity

What is the role of craftsmanship in the post-industrial age? Can it hold up as an economically viable model in face of the increasing digitalization in all areas of life?

A new generation of producing designers has seized the chance to bring together tradition and innovation: artisans, who are putting scientific research theories into action in their own craftsmanship processes, proving that designed crafting is compatible with today’s lifestyles and career worlds.

Craft-Based Design portrays selected designing crafters with very different educational backgrounds in a generational dialogue, showing how they join design work, technology, and manufacturing with cleverly implemented international experience to develop self-determined and economically successful small-scale business models. Photographs of the resulting products and workshops they are made in are complemented with interviews revealing the personal knowledge of the crafters, providing the reader with impressive insights on contemporary craftsmanship and establishing it as an approach unique to the 21st century.

With works of: Martin Aigner / Peter Bruckner / Robert Comploj / Rudolf Gritsch / Sandra Haischberger / Beate von Harten / Arnold Meusburger / Veronika Persché / Thomas Rösler / Martina Zwölfer

Editor: Stefan Moritsch
Text: Janko Ferk
Photos: Nikolaus Korab
Graphic concept and design : Andreas Pawlik, Fanny Arnold (dform)
Publisher: Niggli; English | German, 160 pages, 200 illustrations, 22 x 28 cm, hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7212-0979-2