Tracing Design’s Value in Distributed Manufacturing

Today, much of “innovative” design tackles purely digital products or physical products extended by digital functionalities or connectivity. Meanwhile, the digital environment of the web deeply impacts the marketing—and increasingly the design process—of purely physical objects that surround our everyday life. The increasing technological maturity of digital fabrication tools has already established the conditions for a wider diffusion of distributed manufacturing, an ever more valid alternative to conventional manufacturing in many product categories. Distributed manufacturing promises a more direct connection between designer and consumer/maker. On the other hand, new challenges emerge around the management and monetization of the work done for an unforeseeable mass of consumers rather than a single business client. Observing recent trends in other creative industries, this paper outlines three possible scenarios for a stimulating compensation of designers: free, pay‐per‐download, and subscription‐based distribution of creative works. Beyond simple economic concepts, each of these scenarios operates on a different metaphor, requires a different kind of digital infrastructure, and offers a different kind of incentive to attract designers and their efforts. The contribution hopes to help identify possible strategies that might lead to sustainable business models of design for distributed manufacturing.