Design patents are easy to work around and require a lot of money and legal power to enforce, especially if it’s coming from a random factory overseas.
Both of your original thoughts are very, very wrong.
#1 - don’t record people without telling them they are being recorded. Ever.
#2 - Well done renderings are a dime a dozen. Asking someone to develop a product based on pretty renderings is foolish. I could make crap renderings of a phenomenal and ultimately commercially successful product, or amazing renderings of a crap product - but you are asking someone to take a leap of faith that people will actually buy your product, which goes far beyond pretty renderings. What you need is a complete business case and a venture capitalist.
Ultimately Taylor is right, if your idea is good enough you should prototype it and try to sell it. There are lots of venues these days like Kickstarter that could be used for capital and softgoods tend to be easier to start off with, especially if you don’t require any unique tooling.
I to this day have NEVER heard of a company that welcomes unsolicited ideas with the exception of Quirky.