When I started at the USPTO in 2014, I was tasked with creating a visual brand identity system for the agency. One thing I was not able to address during that process was the design of the patent cover, which is one of the most highly visible documents produced by the agency. It was clear that the design could use some help. It was dated, poorly typeset, and I knew that we could create a document more worthy of its significance.

In early 2017 I realized that we were about a year and a half from issuing patent ten million, and that there would never be a better time to introduce a redesign than that major milestone.

The patent is one of the most significant documents that the federal government issues. Some of the older covers were highly elaborate, almost looking like currency or stock certificates. So it was clear that we had a lot to live up to.

To work with me I recruited a small design team from among our in-house creative talent – veteran designers Rick Heddlesten and Teresa Verigan. I asked the team for designs in three basic categories – an improvement to the existing patent cover, a classic design inspired by the historical versions, and an anything-goes clean sheet of paper approach.

Each of us brought six designs to the initial review. We pared the initial 18 down to six candidates. I then had each team member do a round of design iterations on everyone else’s designs, rather than their own. This was done both for the value of cross-pollinating ideas, and to ensure that every member of the team would have a hand in the finished design.

The last version of this design was used for almost 35 years. The version before that, almost 80. So not only were we creating something that could conceivably remain in use for generations, but would still be seen centuries from now. Patent covers hang in corporate offices, on the living room walls of inventors’ descendants, and find their way into library and museum collections around the world, waiting to be rediscovered by future archivists and researchers. We wanted to be sure that whatever design we settled on was worthy of that kind of longevity.

After a few rounds of revisions we had three strong candidate designs ready to go. We pitched them to the Commissioner for Patents, and before long we had a final design selection. We then set about making the final rounds of revisions to the design.

We had already established that we wanted to use a script font for much of the content, as a way to tie the new design to its 18th and 19th-century predecessors. It turned out to be quite a challenge to find a typeface that didn’t make the patent cover look like a wedding invitation. We finally settled on Geographica Script, a typeface based on hand-lettered 18th century documents, paired with classic Adobe Caslon Pro for the legal text on the front and inside covers.

Meticulous attention was paid to the script type. Since the font contained many OpenType alternates for most characters, we spent quite a bit of time looking for just the right combinations.

As the old and new designs already used foil stamping for the seal, we extended its use to the small ornaments as well as the bold “Patent” lettering that is the centerpiece of the design. This design also makes stronger use of color than any previous version, in the form of the red band which borders the front cover and wraps around the spine and the entire back. The 1980s version was the first that wasn’t bound with an actual ribbon. This new one is the first that doesn’t even feature a facsimile ribbon, but the red band is a bit of an homage to that historical feature.

The new design was unveiled to the public at SXSW in March 2018. On June 19, the USPTO issued patent number 10,000,000, and used the new cover design for the first time. The milestone patent was an oversized, ribbon-bound special edition, signed at a White House ceremony.

A key driver for the redesign project was the experience of the inventors themselves. Receiving that first patent in the mail is a landmark event in any inventor’s life, and it deserves a document suitable to the occasion. The USPTO issues patents every Tuesday, and almost every week there are patent owners taking to social media to proudly display the covers of their new patents. Feedback from the inventors, our own employees, and other stakeholders on the new design was overwhelmingly positive, and the ability to create something with such historic significance was a once-in-a-career experience for the design team.

The new design had some unanticipated benefits as well. The historic research that underpinned the design process resulted in an exhibit at the National Inventors Hall of Fame, showcasing patent cover designs from 1790 to the present. The new cover was also the centerpiece of a three-block sidewalk exhibit on patent history at USPTO headquarters, and played a prominent role in many events celebrating the issuance of patent 10,000,000. A year later, employees entering the USPTO’s main headquarters building walk under a 30 foot facsimile of the design suspended in the atrium.