Adam Sandow demonstrating Material Bank
In today’s digital world, design professionals are no strangers to the dynamics in other sectors and can even see greater impact from them: just think about today’s hyperconnectivity, all the hurry, the ability to spot trends from anywhere around the globe, the new possibilities offered by technology… In tandem, there are new tools and gadgets for designers and architects to deal with this new context. This article takes a look at one of these new tools—Material Bank.
This platform from SANDOW brings material samples from hundreds of top global brands to designers and architects’ doors. Professionals can look for materials or brands online and request a material samples at no charge that will be delivered to their studio in just a few hours. The service is currently only available in the US, although they are working on introducing it in other countries.
As Adam Sandow, chair and founder of Sandow Media, explains to The Decorative Surfaces, the platform offers time-savings for designers and ‘boosts brand awareness’. Sandow explains that ‘Material Bank is a powerful tool to generate “leads”, supporting representatives and brands in expanding their global reach’.
He underscores the platform’s ‘incredible sustainability and high effectiveness for both designers and manufacturers’. Material Bank invites users to return the samples once they have been viewed so they can be reused and to cut back on waste.
The website offers different inspirational palettes, colours and textures while enabling several category searches: applications, materials and brands. Available materials include quartz and metal, paints, corks, textiles, woods, etc. This wide selection of products helps creative professionals to see first-hand whether a material aligns with their project or to show it to clients.
‘Designers draw ever more inspiration from Instagram and Pinterest, meaning they consume more and more content. This is why it is crucial that brands use digital tools to keep themselves updated on what is happening in the industry’, states Sandow in reference to how sector trends can evolve. Material Bank is an interesting and useful tool for professionals in the US that we hope to see become available in other countries soon.
