A Marrakech outpost

A few weeks ago, we visited Marrakech, Morocco in pursuit of deepening Full Circle initiatives. Like Cape Town, we met with artisans and designers to find materials and potential partners.

Marrakech is a beautiful city bursting with color and pattern—a designers dream! It was incredible to walk through the city and look at all the color, texture, pattern and handiwork. One can understand why famous designers have loved that city for so long. Morocco has many highly skilled and creative craftspeople, we are excited about the opportunities there!

In the workshop looking at textiles

Patterns and textures

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Over the past year, we have spent time on the ground with our Full Circle artisans in various regions of Nepal and Ndem, Senegal, and are excited to launch these new products and stories.

Learn more about one of our favorite Full Circle products, Connection, through this beautiful short film...

Trade show season is in the air and that means new products from 3form! I'm really excited to unveil them to the world next week at HD Expo.

This year, we're pleased to announce new Varia® Ecoresin® interlayers, from sustainable organics and bold fabrics to recycled paper and hi-resolution woods; an exciting new modular addition from 3form Studio; new fixtures from LightArt, and more.

You can check out the new 3form collection in a hands-on experience at our HD Expo booth, May 15-17 in Las Vegas. We'll save you a spot at booth #2339. Of course, we'll also be at NeoCon in Chicago, June 10-12, at booth #7-4094.

And be sure to visit our Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed for special expo promotions and giveaways.

Can't make it to the event? Ask your rep to bring the show to you. Schedule a presentation.

While you're waiting for next week's big product launch, leave your email below for an invitation to get a sneak peek of new products on our web site. (Email addresses will be kept private and not published below). Click here to see our current products offered.

One Response to “HD Expo 2013: New Product Launch”

1. Kirsten Says:
   May 8th, 2013 at 10:07 pm

   Looking forward to the new product launch!

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• Categories: News

As 3form evolves from a materials company to a complete solutions provider: from partitions, transactions and lighting to hardware and exteriors; all with our already advanced translucent resin and glass materials, one company that comes to mind as inspiring is what Zahner does with metals.

Our quest is to do with resins, what Zahner does with metals. In many ways, a lot of things done with metals are achievable with resins.

Zahner Campus Fins (Zahner) // Wilfrid Pelletier Ceiling Feature (3form)

Artwall at Doha (Zahner) // RESOR wall (3form)

With a 105 year head start on 3form (celebrating our 10 year anniversary in 2012) we're energized to deliver large-scale projects and are excited to be associated with similar installations as Zahner, like the Kauffman Performing Arts Center.

Kauffman Performing Arts Center: Zahner Exterior, 3form Interior Balconies

One Response to “Advancing Manufacturing”

1. Bill Zahner Says:
   May 15th, 2013 at 3:30 pm

   We are as well inspired by what you do.

   We should do something together.

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• Categories: Design, Technology

Waste is a symptom of inefficiency, so preventing it is an important part of any solid strategy to reduce costs and the impact on the environment. As we continue to reduce the amount of waste we produce, we also work hard to find reusable options for what we still generate.

Our preferred method of "disposal" is upcycling. Upcycling is the process of using waste to create new materials or products of higher quality or value; and it can have several positive environmental impacts.

ReMix and 100 Percent are great examples of upcycling. Remix is made with edge trim from our other panels and 100 Percent is made of used milk jugs.

On a smaller scale, we encourage upcycling of our scrap by offering it to our employees and local schools and artists for reuse. This is especially important for materials for which we have no recycling outlet.

Here are some of the creative results...

Students making a pen

Polished ball made from Chroma

Fan blades made from Varia

Tell us what you’ve made out of 3form materials rescued from the waste stream.

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• Categories: Sustainability

Workshop in Cape Town

This week our design team is in Cape Town, South Africa, exploring Full Circle initiatives. We were excited to hear from our Senior VP of Marketing & Design:

Cape Town is a distinctly different experience compared to our other Full Circle trips to Nepal and West Africa. It has a feel of a European city by the ocean.

Cape Town is sophisticated and smart, yet surrounded by contrast—South Africans struggling with the basic necessities like electricity and clean water. The unemployment rate is 30%. It is a region of haves and have-nots living side by side.

In the past few days, our host has introduced us to a creative community of designers who are driven to make an impact upon the lives of the less fortunate. They understand the urgency of job creation and have the business savvy to make it happen. We are very inspired about our new partnership with the artisans of Cape Town.

Artisan working with his hands

Exploring different materials

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Midmod industrial design

Our design team spent the last week in Milan, Italy for Design Week. We were once again amazed by breathtaking exhibits and came away inspired.

Many of the colors we saw were mid-century—navy blue, mustard yellow, pink/peach, dark green... We also saw a lot of black. Weaving and stitching seemed to still be relevant, there were many textures inspired by weaves.

The story behind each product is important to us—how it's made and by who. We observed real artisans working on furniture; which was neat to see.

Artisan furniture maker

Colorful woven pattern

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• Categories: Design, News

Ready-to-Go landing page

We've paid attention to how designers approach a space and the solutions they specify. With 200+ packaged solutions, upfront budget pricing and material options, it's designed for you to digest a myriad of content with ease.

Partition 200.01, material swatch options

Get Inspired tab

Get inspired for your next gig and take a closer look at the details behind each packaged solution with 'hotspot' call outs featuring magnified photography, line drawings and videos.

Design is in the details, make it happen with Ready-to-Go. Click here to check out the new site and let us know what you think!

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• Categories: Technology

Love Utah Give Utah

Today, Love UT Give UT is bringing together Utahns for 24-hours of unprecedented giving. It’s one extraordinary day to support the non-profit organizations that make Utah special. This event is a chance for each of us to make a real impact by adding donations to thousands more.

3form is proud to support organizations and people that make our state great; so, during this event, we will match every donation given to Wasatch Community Gardens through the Love UT Give UT site (up to $2,000).

Wasatch Community Gardens empowers people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food. In previous years, we’ve had great fun supporting their youth programs and helping to ready their gardens as part of our Earth Day celebration.

Grow something special

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• Categories: News, Sustainability

I saw Janine Benyus during her recent visit to Salt Lake City, where she lectured at the University of Utah. We had a few minutes to catch up and exchange stories about Montana's Bitterroot Valley, a place where we both have ties. 3form had previously sponsored Janine's keynote speech a few years ago at the Sustainability Conference and since then, I have been fascinated with her pioneering work in the area of Biomimicry.

Fish gill-inspired Biomimicry design

The basic premise of Biomimicry is that nature can profoundly inform design. Nature approaches design problems in a holistic way and solves the most complicated problems in elegant, beautiful and sustainable ways. Take for example, the way that African termites solve heating and cooling issues or the way that nature produces concrete-like material in the form of massive coral reefs. By better understanding these natural processes, architects, designers and engineers are increasingly able to find solutions that are both commercial as well as sustainable--after all, nature is always an energy miser!

What may be even more profound than actually identifying and emulating a specific natural process, is the way that Biomimicry pushes us to change the way we think about design problems. Indeed the way we approach a design problem usually predetermines the range of possible outcomes. Rather than asking, "How can I design a better heating system," the better question is "How can I most effectively heat and cool a structure, and what can we learn from natural systems?" The very act or redefining the problem creates an entire range of more interesting solutions.

It has been several years since I had met Janine and I was excited to see the progress her Biomimicry institute is making in gaining traction with corporate clients who are finding breakthrough solutions to real-world problems. I continue to be a huge fan.

See Biomimicry in action through a fish gill-inspired design.

One Response to “Design Informed by Nature”

1. David Says:
   March 13th, 2013 at 3:19 pm

   This is a fascinating approach to architectural design developments. I remember when Janine visited us in April 2010. The most memorable guest speaker we have had during my time at here at 3form.

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• Categories: Design

Atrium One/Two lobby

2013 is well on its way with many new design ideas, colors and patterns. Keep your eyes peeled for one in particular--iridescents.

Lately, we've seen some new installations emerge using 3form material that support this bright trend. Take the Atrium One/Two Lobby for example, an amazing feature with dichroic panels, muted iridescents, and translucency. And if this direction means more shoes like these, keep it coming!

Jeffrey Campbell Dina Jewel shoes

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• Categories: Design