Throughout the twentieth century, ceramics was broadly divided into two sectors.Studio pottery, which was a reaction against the mass-madewares of the industrialrevolution, and fine art by contemporary artists, who just happened touse clay in their practice but rejected many of its traditional codes of practice.The unprecedented surge in popularity of ceramics in the last five years hashelped forge a new type of potter: the ceramic designer. Part-craftsman,part designer,they bridge ceramic craft, collectable design, and fine art. These ceramicistsinclude product designers who use clay as a means of creative expression,and classically trained potters who create design-ledpieces, in addition to interiordecorators, illustrators, and graphic designers.Their collective output includes furniture, decorative objects, murals, andvessels: not art, not craft, but design. The ambition of the book is to show the diversityof this area of creative production and the way in which history, craft,technology, and design are all intersecting in the present day, creating a new typeof designer--anda new type of ceramicist.The book is divided into four thematic chapters and accompanied by writtencontributions on the subject from designers, decorators, and collectors.