The definition of invention in the IB Design Technology Diploma Guide Glossary is the process of discovering a principle – a technical advance in a particular field often resulting in a novel product. So an inventor may have an idea for a new product but these ideas themselves do not constitute an invention until they are transformed into something more tangible such as a model or a prototype. The general conditions applying to a patent for an invention are that the invention must be new, not obvious to someone knowledgable about the subject and it must be capable of an industrial application.
Design on the other hand is concerned with drawings, models etc which provide information about the proposed new idea so an inventor often produces many different designs in order to try and optimize the original idea into a suitable invention. James Dyson, for example, produced over 2000 models representing different aspects of his idea for a new (cyclone) vacuum cleaner before he arrived at a suitable invention (prototype) ready for production.
