Dear Carma,
Thank you for sharing, truly interesting reading.
Yours sincerely,
Soren
On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Carma Gorman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear PhD-Design list subscribers:
>
> I posted a message yesterday about a report that the USA's National
> Endowment for the Arts (NEA) released this past week. You can download the
> report here: http://www.nea.gov/research/Valuing-Industrial-Design.pdf.
>
> I had a chance to read the report last night, so I thought I'd note some of
> the things I found interesting about it (besides the fact that the NEA
> published something on industrial design in the first place, which to me is
> still the single most surprising thing).
>
> First, I was surprised to learn that there are already a couple of
> NEA-funded grant programs that accept proposals related to industrial
> design. I was wholly unaware of them, even though I do my best to stay
> informed. (I've been running the Design Studies Forum announcement list for
> twelve years, so I thought I knew the grants landscape pretty well.) You
> can learn more about the relevant NEA grant programs here:
> http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Design.html.
>
> Second, I found the report's description of the field of industrial design
> quite different from and a great deal more substantive than IDSA's.
> Although IDSA occasionally publishes demographic and salary data, my
> understanding is that the figures are voluntarily reported by
> (self-selecting) IDSA members, who are not necessarily representative of
> the field as a whole. The NEA report, in contrast, paints its picture of
> the profession using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census
> Bureau, and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Even if you don't have time
> to read the text, the many charts and graphs presenting these data are in
> my opinion worth a look.
>
> Third, I didn't have any idea that "In an analysis of U.S. patents awarded
> between 1975 and 2010, Alan Marco, the USPTO’s acting chief economist, has
> found that 40 percent of people named on design patents (“designers”) over
> that period (55,000 out of 136,000) were also named on utility patents. By
> contrast, among the 2.5 million people named on utility patents
> (“inventors”) over the same period, only 2 percent were named on design
> patents" (p. 11).
>
> Fourth, although I knew that there have been a record number of design
> patent applications filed and awarded in recent years, I hadn't realized
> that "The number of U.S.-awarded design patents per 100,000 population is
> at an all-time high: seven in 2012, compared with one at the turn of the
> 20th
> century." (p. 10) Thus it's not just that there are more Americans than
> there used to be, with a proportionate increase in the number design
> patents; rather, it's that the per capita rate of filings has increased
> dramatically over the last century, too. Surely there's a dissertation
> topic there somewhere.
>
> Fifth, I was really struck by the list of the top eight categories in which
> design patents are currently being issued (p. 38). The top two are
> furniture and electronic devices (e.g., smartphones)--one a traditional
> decorative art that's been around virtually forever, and the other a
> high-tech category that's relatively new. It's kind of amazing that design
> patents can encompass them both, and also that designers and manufacturers
> in both industries still find design patents useful as a form of IP
> protection, especially given the stilted way in which US patent law defines
> "design."
>
> Anyway, I mention the report and these interesting factoids not because I
> am trying to convince you to leap from your chair and read it right now
> (though for members of this list who are US residents, that might not be a
> bad idea), but rather because I think we should collectively keep an ear
> open for any additional design initiatives the NEA funds. It sounds like
> perhaps there will be more, and that some of them may eventually relate to
> education.
>
> If any of you know anything about what NEA is planning, or what exactly
> motivated publication of this report at this specific historical moment,
> I'd love to hear from you.
>
> Thanks,
> Carma Gorman, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor | Design Division
> Department of Art and Art History
> University of Texas at Austin
>
>
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--
Soren Ingomar Petersen, PhD.
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Los Angeles, Copenhagen
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Welcome to a new and beautiful day!
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