Beyond the Document: Living Institutions of US National Design Policy

Abstract

There is wide consensus among experts that the United States lacks a national design policy,' suggest these writers, and then they proceed to refute that statement and also to introduce the current US Design Policy Initiative. The authors suggest that America's Federal Design Improvement Program of the 1970s was indeed a national design policy, even though it did not emphasize economic competitiveness but rather sought to 'improve the image of the American government in the public eye.' The current initiative, of which Tunstall is the author, hopes to establish a governmental plan of action for design that encapsulates the practices of design policy carried out by US professional design associations, design education bodies, and the federal government, and honors them as living institutions.