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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