-NEWS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jayne Rosen
Phone: 603.228.8550
IDPCinfo@yahoo.com
NON PROFIT FIGHTS TO PROTECT DESIGNERS FROM
LEGISLATED ECONOMIC DISASTER
Question: What organization has the ability to directly jeopardize the economic future of
112,000 people, and indirectly negatively affect the livelihoods of over 3,000,000?
Answer: The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).
On March 25, 2008, the Interior Design Protection Council (IDPC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization was launched in response to anti-competitive legislation pending or planned in 17
states which threaten the livelihoods of thousands of designers all over the country. Also
negatively affected by this legislation would be at least 28 ancillary trades regularly hired by
interior designers to complete their projects. The new national organization will work to actively
influence legislation germane to protecting the rights and practices and of designers throughout
the United States.
Headed by Executive Director, Patti Morrow, an interior designer, author of Getting Grassroots
Galvanized, and founder of Live Free and Design!, a New Hampshire-based grassroots
organization that spearheaded the defeat of two bills in 2007, IDPC’s mission is to provide
mechanisms for and encourage members of the design community to organize and participate in
the political processes affecting their livelihoods and the interior design industry generally.
Says Morrow, “IDPC originated out of the need to protect designers from anti-competitive
legislation introduced by ASID-funded coalitions. Since January, as a result of the success of
state grassroots opposition efforts to defeat legislation, ASID has ramped up its efforts and
through their funded coalitions, have attempted to introduce new anti-competition regulation in 9
states, and we are needed now to help newly threatened states to formulate their opposition, to
track new bills as they are introduced and to assist existing organizations to function more
effectively before economic disaster strikes.”
Since it appears that ASID’s intention is to pass practice acts in all 50 states, this legislation has
the potential to affect the 112,000 interior designers around the country, but can also have a
negative impact on many related trades such as carpenters, painters, paperhangers, home theater
companies, tile installers, etc., encompassing well in excess of 3,000,000 contractors and artisans
around the nation, since designers hire an enormous number of skilled workers to complete their
plans. “And in an economy such as this,” says Morrow, “that is a recipe for financial disaster.”
Contrary to popular belief, the average interior designer makes only around $48,000 per year,
and most are small business owners helping to support their homes and families.
The proposed legislation, consistently introduced under the guise of “health and safety” is
actually a clear attempt to monopolize the interior design industry by enacting into law the
“professional” membership credentials of ASID, an organization in which only about 10% of its
membership meets the criteria it purports to impose on all designers. If legislation succeeds, it
would limit fair competition, forcing many honest, hardworking designers out of business in
order to enhance the business of a small handful of industry insiders.
There is no evidence that the unregulated practice of interior design presents any genuine risk to
public health, safety or welfare. According to the Better Business Bureau, since 1907, there have
been only 52 lawsuits in the entire United States related to interior designers, and the vast
majority of those involved contract issues not negligence or safety-related concerns.
IDPC is the only national interior design organization exclusively engaged in protecting interior
design and interior decorating small business owners. Morrow adds, “Successful, practicing
designers and decorators should not be forced out of business because they did not attend the
“right” school, or do not have the experience approved by one organization which does not have
the legal right to impose its standards on others who did not sign on to their programs.” She
continues, “Entry into the field should not be restricted because students cannot qualify under a
single entry pipeline and an inappropriate certification process. Diversity is necessary to the
design profession; without it, the creative heart of the profession will be destroyed.”
Morrow will be working with colleges and universities to educate students and teachers as to the
restrictions created by legislation on graduates entering the field.
Working with Morrow on the Board of Directors are Clark Neily, Senior Attorney for the
Institute for Justice, Walter Peterson, founding partner of Weixler Peterson & Luzi, Diane
Plesset, principle of D.P. Design and co-host of Today’s Home on 93.9 KPDQ FM, Oregon,
James Deerin, Executive V.P. of Decorating Den Systems, Inc, Steven Provoyeur, President
Quantum IS Solutions, and Jayne Rosen, president of J R Design Coordinates, LLC and
Executive Director of Liberty for Pa Designers.
At a time when so many American freedoms are under siege, it may seem to some that the right
to the freedom to practice interior design is a trivial matter, but if the right of economic freedom
guaranteed by the Constitution is denied to one group, all are imperiled.