Anyone have advice on how to kick-start a materials library from scratch?
(I’ve always had one available to me, but never had to stock one myself.)
Who are the top designer materials subscription services? (Like Inventables)
What are the “must-have” vendor material-selector guides?
Any other thoughts on building a samples library?
MoldTec samples would be useful to have, as well as Pantones plastic collection.
The company I used to work at had a pretty good library, but mostly for architectural and retail projects. I had the task of keeping things stocked and updated.
Most places you can just call and tell them that you are a small business owner and need samples for upcoming projects. Say you need to review the available options, blah blah, I really like the quality of you work and would like to use your company as a main vendor. Potential for big $$$$ orders. Sales people live for calls like that.
Paint stores like sherwin williams keep really nice plastic cases with samples of every color they make including a compact color fan, the things weighs 30lbs easy. I used to get those for free all the time.
Laminate companies give out samples for free via order forms on their websites, even if you dont want to order the materials they make great references for colors and textures of woods, fabris, etc. Good ones to contact are: formica, nevamar, wilsonart, abet laminati, and chemetal.
For plastics i would contact Cyro, through them you can find a rep and get every color of acrylic known to man. For amazing anodized aluminum samples call Clariant chemicals, i think the reps’s name is Laura Popp, they sent me a great book with a ton of real color samples.
For fabrics find a local rep and tell them that you’re a furniture designer who needs to see whats new, you can usually get some good sized samples.
For other materials just follow the same route. I hate to lie but with some of these companies they know that you are looking for freebies they will purposly hang up on you, as an independant designer you need to work a little harder to get what they give to bigger firms all day long.
This has been a currnet W.I.P. of mine too. I’m in the P-O-P industry.
The directives given to the procurement folks as follows…
We’re putting together a list of materials that we’re considering our “standards”. What we want to do for Design / Engineering, is to have an information library of manufacturing materials & samples.
Here’s just some basic stuff that I thought we could make available…
Our Wish List to our suppliers…
Corplas suppliers (corrugated plastic)
standard colors and sample chips / sample books + estimated turnaround time
standard sheet sizes + turnaround time
custom sheet sizes + turnaround time
custom sheet sizes & custom color + turnaround time
Plastic Resin suppliers
standard colors sample chips
estimated turnaround time for standard colors
estimated turnaround time for standard colors (business days to get in house)
Powder Coatings suppliers (Wire / Metal)
Sample Chips of available coatings
Custom color/finish availability - effected turnaround time
Graphic Printing - Contracted printers
Sample Chips / Books available for internal use as well as have available samples to send out.
3form?
PLEXIGLAS wise - get the ‘Magic Box’ from Degussa.
Of course the ‘magic’ comes from the designer+material, but the box is a good and free starter. See my blog-post under Material Stories for ordering, and keep posted for more materials resources over here.
http://www.vanbezooyen.com/materialstories/2005/11/material-inspiration-plexiglas.html
Bay Bay! a
mmjohns, that’s an excellent way to get material samples. At my company we build our library on a project by project basis.
Our “Batcave” is similar to the Design Kitchen. .
Usually Just start by disecting possible projects into their prospective materials. Then find some vendors for that material. They’re usually pretty generous with the samples as long as you don’t say something about building your material library. The more specific you are about what you might want, usually the more receptive they are.
“Hi, I’m working of development for a project that potentially uses some _______ I was wondering if I could get some samples for In house testing. And if you have any more information on similar products within your line…”
I started doing this in college when i had access to Material Connexion’s DB. I just looked through all the providers and took down the names. Then I went to their websites and asked for samples. This method was successful 9 out of 10 times and only failed when i was asking for some outrageously expensive material.
ANother decent resource is that “directory” issue ID puts out every year. Not as comprehensive as MC, but a whole lot cheaper.
Since I’ve graduated its only become easier to get samples (i’m sure most companies are a tad skeptical of any email address that ends in .edu)
I started doing this in college when i had access to Material Connexion’s DB. I just looked through all the providers and took down the names. Then I went to their websites and asked for samples. This method was successful 9 out of 10 times and only failed when i was asking for some outrageously expensive material.
ANother decent resource is that “directory” issue ID puts out every year. Not as comprehensive as MC, but a whole lot cheaper.
Since I’ve graduated its only become easier to get samples (i’m sure most companies are a tad skeptical of any email address that ends in .edu)
Do you mind if you can tell me what is the website for Moldtec? I can’t seem to find it.
Thank you.
mine info from free services
a collection of links are here
http://phidias.design.harvard.edu/materials/other_materials.html
free materials database (mostly architecture and interiors)
Greenmaterials
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/~kx19789/rematerialise/
lots of time asking for samples.
I’m from Material ConneXion. We are known for our state-of-the-art Materials Library of new and innovative materials. We can also create ‘custom’ material resource libraries for design firms, manufacturers and retailers. You can contact me at: consulting@materialconnexion.com for more information.
Thanks,
S.Glass
hi.
i am doin a research problems faced by designers in sourcing and hav an idea of a research library. plz lemme who are the kind of people/ firms who will be/are interested in such a thing.
Schoeller is great for apparel/ footwear/ softgoods. They make so much that it’s more like calling 3M, but hey- put that on the list too.