Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection
About this book
Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection is a reference by Michael Ashby and Kara Johnson for industrial design students learning how to choose materials in relation to a product’s purpose. Published by Butterworth-Heinemann in 2013, this 416-page English-language book treats material selection as both a technical and a design decision. It is suited to readers who want to link the qualities people see and feel in an object with the properties that influence performance, production and use.
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The central value for students is a structured way to compare alternatives rather than choosing a material by appearance or habit alone. Considering properties, costs, processes, environmental implications and user experience together can help a designer understand trade-offs, explain choices and revisit them as a brief changes. The book is relevant to product design projects in which material and manufacturing decisions affect weight, durability, finish, assembly and the character of a product. It can also support collaboration between design and engineering by giving students a shared vocabulary for discussing why one option is more appropriate than another. For a university reading list, it offers a useful foundation for research and studio work; readers can apply its selection logic when building material palettes, assessing prototypes and documenting design decisions.
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