Animals have always accompanied people -- whether as food, labour, or social companions. While the number of house pets and services for four-legged animals are growing every year, 'real' animals are increasingly disappearing from view.Today, animals can be optimised almost entirely based on the ideas of people: they are created in the laboratory, bred as organ donors, and their flesh grown in petri dishes. How are common perceptions of animals changing as a result?The designers and artists in the publication go on a search for the 'right degree' in designing such creatures. They therefore run through the possibilities of the human-animal relationship and simultaneously through design scenarios for a different future.Published alongside the exhibition, Creatures made to Measure: Animals and Contemporary Design at Design Museum Gent (17 May - 29 September, 2019).