January 12, 2006

By Lauren Heaton

Patent illustrator Diane Petzold

A mix of art and technology is evident in the professional work of patent illustrator Diane Petzold, whose Web site drawings range from toasters to DNA structures to body parts supported by medical devices.

Drawing other people’s secrets for a living, Petzold said, is the way she has found to create art while also doing something she feels will advance the world and help improve the lives of others.

Petzold has always known she was an artist, but instead of producing art simply for art’s sake, she wanted to use her skills for a positive practical application, she said. A 1990 Antioch College graduate, she longed to be involved in something that could affect others in a positive way and do her part to change the world, she said.

While sifting through her family files in the early 1990s, Petzold discovered a set of precisely rendered ink drawings of a velocipede, or stationary bicycle, that her great-grandfather had patented in the late 19th century. He was a ship builder and an innovator, and the longer Petzold studied his patent drawings, the more it seemed right to honor both her family history and her own artistic bent by becoming an illustrator of inventions, she said.

“I love the arts and sciences, and I needed a balance and a way to earn a living,” she said. “This seemed like a way to do something I was good at to benefit people.”

Petzold was enamored with the thought that images can create ideas, and that a good illustrator can communicate elegantly without words, she said. She began by studying computer-aided design while living in California in the early 1990s, and when she moved back to Yellow Springs in 1998, she began searching for patent attorneys who needed an illustrator.

Since moving here, Petzold has been impressed with the number of inventors who have come from Yellow Springs, she said. She worked with villager Paul Webb last year to illustrate a medical device related to an aerospace project he resurrected from his former business, Webb Associates in Yellow Springs. Webb, who has patented five or six medical devices in his lifetime, said the illustration is an important part of the patent process because it best demonstrates how the mechanism of a device works. His current invention is likely to remain caught in the patenting process for another two to three years, the average time it takes to receive approval, Webb said.

Working in Yellow Springs, Petzold is also grateful for the number of community-minded professionals who are willing to explain the scientific processes she needs to know in order to illustrate the different kinds of patents that come her way, she said. Dan Dixon is her local laser systems resource, and she goes to Stan Bernstein for questions about molecular chemistry models. Bound by client confidentiality, she can’t show anyone her work, but gaining foundational knowledge about her projects is invaluable, she said.

Patenting is a highly regulated and methodical process, and Petzold gets most of her work from the half dozen patent attorneys she works with in Dayton, Columbus, Toledo and North Carolina, she said. To be approved, patents must have a unique design and function that is not currently in use, she said. In addition, the design must also work and have a purpose, she said.

“That means the piano-screwdriver doesn’t have a chance,” she said.

The standardized application process requires that patent illustrations be marked by precision and be regulated down to the width of the ink line on the page, Petzold said. The mechanisms of her designs must be easy to understand but not obvious enough for replication by the unscrupulous marauder trying to profit from someone else’s idea, she said.

Raw submissions come to her most often as drawings, prototypes, photos and even PowerPoint presentations, but Petzold sometimes finds she has to translate images scratched on paper napkins. Computers help refine her drawings, she said, but they can’t substitute for artistic skill.

“If you can’t draw, a computer’s not going to help you,” she said.

Petzold believes in the patenting process and trusts that it helps protect scientists and investors who are committed to researching and designing new products.

“The beauty of the patent office in this country is that it helps people with ideas,” she said. “We’re kind of like an insurance policy for the little guy who’s trying to invest in brain power. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good.”

Some of the ideas she has encountered, such as a dental tool that improves the way cavities are filled, at first seemed a little strange to her.

“Why would anyone want to redesign that?” she said. “But I was looking at the redesign, and I was like, this will make it so much easier. This is good. This is progress.”

Petzold has worked with a California resident who she said has designed every fishing reel that’s ever been used. She has done drawings for a new machine that screws caps on plastic bottles without stopping an assembly line belt. She has also worked with procedural patents related to laparoscopic heart surgery, patents for computer interface systems and patents

for solar cell products (none of which she is able to talk about in detail because the patents are still pending.)

“A lot of this stuff, you just know this is good, that it’s true progress and that it’s not just about the money,” she said. “It’s heartening to me.”

Petzold does her work at home, which allows her to spend time with her daughter, Maggie. But she hopes to increase her project volume and continue to use her skills to help solve problems and improve the quality of life for others, she said.

“It’s the best of human creativity, talents and intelligence at work, and it allows me to do something creative and positive,” she said.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com