Scott Klinker spent 24 years shaping designers at Cranbrook Academy of Art. On September 23, he's bringing his first book back to the Bloomfield Hills campus where he studied and taught.

Klinker, who earned his MFA in Design from Cranbrook in 1996 and led the school's 3D Design/Industrial Design department from 2001 until 2025, will launch "Fine Design: A Studio Guide to Remixing Design, Art, Craft, and Industry" with a free public discussion at Cranbrook Art Museum at 6 p.m. The event is part of Detroit Month of Design, which runs throughout September 2026.

The book, published by Eindhoven-based Set Margins and priced at $54, argues that design is returning to the intimacy of hands-on making after decades tied to mass manufacturing. Klinker pairs reflective essays with workbook-style exercises, illustrated with student and alumni projects from his years running the Cranbrook program.

The event is free.

Cranbrook Art Museum Director Andrew Blauvelt, himself a Cranbrook MFA Design graduate from the class of 1988, wrote the foreword. Blauvelt has led the museum since 2015.

Klinker's Cranbrook tenure included industry partnerships with Herman Miller, Steelcase, Alessi, Landscape Forms, and Burton Snowboards. In 2024, Dezeen named his studio one of "Ten Studios Leading Detroit's Design Scene."

The Cranbrook Academy of Art announcement, published July 27, described the book as drawing on more than 20 years of studio teaching. One reviewer, cited in the announcement, wrote that the book "does not present a manifesto so much as a taxonomy, a way of naming what many studios have been doing quietly for years: working at the intersection of art, craft, and design without apologizing for the hybridity."

"Fine Design" is addressed to emerging designers, educators, and what Klinker calls "transdisciplinary makers." The book has already been featured in ArchDaily.

Registration for the September 23 event is available at cranbrookartmuseum.org.

Upcoming community events

  • Wednesday, September 23 — "Fine Design" book launch and discussion with Scott Klinker, 6 p.m., Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills. Free; register at cranbrookartmuseum.org.
  • Throughout September 2026 — Detroit Month of Design, featuring tours, workshops, installations, open studios, and talks across the region. Details at designcore.org.