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Craig Martin addresses the transgressive or deviant aspects of design: design that straddles the divide between the licit and illicit, the legal and illegal in a variety of ways. Martin argues that design is not necessarily for the social good; it is immersed in the social realm in all its contradictions and confusions.

Through a series of case studies he explores a wide range of social practices that employ illicit forms of design thinking, including early computer hacking and present-day hacker culture in which everyday objects are repurposed and deliberately mis-used; reproduction, counterfeit, and pirated versions of classic and luxury designs, and the use of craft practices by smugglers to conceal drugs within consumer goods and luggage.

Deviant Design contends that these amateur and illicit practices challenge the normative idea of the professional designer or maker - rather than being reliant on the services of institutionalised design professionals, the adhocist consumer-or 'prosumer'-displays particular forms of innovative design knowledge in how artefacts have an inherent potential to be misused or repurposed.