One year ago, Scott Klinker announced that he was stepping down as designer-in-residence and head of the Industrial Design department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, a position he held since 2001 and only the second person to hold the role. After completing his final year with students, Scott has spent this summer settling into his new role as an independent designer. As he adapts to his new work, he is somehow both downsizing and getting more ambitious with what he wants to do. We caught up with Scott to hear about what he’s working on, how he’s set up the new studio, and what the legacy he hopes he leaves at Cranbrook.

After 24 years, you’ve just stepped away as the director of Cranbrook’s Industrial Design program. Looking back over those years, what do you hope the department is remembered for during your tenure? 

Shaping new design culture has always been the goal for us. Cranbrook seems like one of the few places left to carry on this kind of research. If the place is true to this goal, then it can continue to shape the zeitgeist.

This has happened historically there. The mid-century saw designers updating the rational energy of the Bauhaus ‘machine aesthetic’ with new influences from Art and Craft to make a warmer, softer version of Modernism. The late century saw designers apply postmodern theory to expand the semiotic lexicon. In the new century, designers have embraced plurality and borrow more freely from the methods of the Fine Arts and the Crafts. Many in this generation are discovering new languages through materials and processes.

I’m currently working on a book called Form Follows: New Century Cranbrook Design to unpack the story of this era, featuring an amazing selection of student and alumni work.