sleeper magazine is ready to goWe're having a blast at the HD Expo in Las Vegas. We're speaking with various folks in attendance to find out how they're READY TO GO this year. Here's a taste of what we're hearing so far:
Also, be sure to check out our Tumblr.
showroom funOur new 3form showroom is now open in New York City! It's a gorgeous space - it feels so vibrant. Surrounded by glowing color and spaces that are well coordinated you can't help feeling great. I'm very excited to share it with everyone.
The space is bigger and more centrally located for our clients. There are five spaces within...these spaces demonstrate the range of possibilities with 3form solutions - Ready to Go, lighting, receptions, partitions, doors, etc... The key commercial market sectors are represented - corporate reception, hospitality bar, a cafe that would be ideal in a hospital or institution, a hospitality lounge and a conference room for either corporate or healthcare.
Let's take a virtual tour:
Chroma | Stone (Onyx) | Edge
Entrance: corporate lobby
In this corporate lobby we wanted our brand colors to be infused throughout the space. Our translucent materials enable color to glow; the color reads three dimensionally, across the planes of the space. Our new stone material creates a really fresh look, balancing a timeless appearance with the edgier look of a Chroma lightbox. This vignette really demonstrates the value of our C3 color system. The Chroma lightboxes match the Edge feature on the wall. The look is cohesive. It is a strong and memorable statement. Corporate lobbies should make a lasting impression like this.
Chroma | Struttura | HighRes Nature Gallery
Kitchen: hospitality bar
3form Chroma is a always so striking as a bar top. In this installation, the material drops to the floor, creating a beautiful frame for the back lit Struttura bar front. This is one of our niches - bar tops and fronts. We wanted to show two solutions in harmony with each other. The HighRes Nature Gallery image wraps from wall to wall, complementing the blue bar top that has similar movement. The oversized orchid imagery delivers a powerful punch! It feels like a fairy tale come to life.
Varia + Birch | Chroma | Solitude
Seating area: healthcare/institution cafe
There are four 3form solutions in this vignette. I love the Birch, so natural and wild, surrounded by bright sunny tones of the lightbox bench, Chroma table top and Varia ceiling feature. The glowing lightbox bench activates the floor space, while the Solitude Shapes as the ceiling feature draws your eye upward to complete the picture.
Varia Mirage | Chroma
Lounge: hospitality lounge
We carved out this space with a curved partion. This created a nice separation from the adjacent area - the partition clearly "belongs" to the lounge. This allowed us to have two visually busy areas side by side that don't compete with each other.
HighRes Nature Gallery | Chroma | Varia | LightArt
Meeting room: corporate or healthcare conference room
The Nature Gallery stones image was the main inspiration for the palette of this space. We picked up several of the brown rock tones with the LightArt basket fixture. The weaving earth-toned bands in the fixture are reminiscent of drift wood. The partition and doors are part of our new Hint texture collection. We chose a design and color that felt like falling rain. The total impression of the room is calming, yet every element has detail and refinement that keeps you wonderfully engaged with the environment.
Drop by and see us! It's fun to see the materials and Ready to Go packages full size and in the flesh!
come get inspiredCan you believe it's already May? And, of course, that means it's Expo time - and THAT means it's time for product launches! We've all been working so hard to develop a ton of intriguing new products, and I'm really excited to unveil them to the world next week.
This year, we're pleased to announce new Varia Ecoresin interlayers, new textures, a new addition to our Stone line, the brilliant Edge wall feature from Studio, new LightArt, new Ready to Go packages, and much 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 be at Booth #2414. Of course, we'll also be at NeoCon in Chicago, June 11-13, at booth #7-4094.
And be sure to visit our Facebook page and follow our Tweets for special expo promotions.
Can't make it to the expo? Ask your rep for the show to be brought to you. Schedule a presentation.
While you're waiting for next week's big product launch, check out what we have available now...and check out our cool teaser video:
Lafayette Tower | Washington D.C.On a recent business trip to New York to work on our new 3form Showroom, I had a chance to take in an awesome exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). The exhibit featured photography of the design work of architect Kevin Roche.
Roche designed the headquarters for the Ford Foundation in New York, the One United Nations Office Building, the Plaza Hotel, the Central Park Zoo, and the UNICEF headquarters in New York. He did drawings, renderings and models for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1969. He designed the New Haven Veteran's Memorial Coliseum, and transformed the museum environment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He also did additions and scores of renovations to existing landmark architecture.
From the exhibit:
"Roche is one of the favorite architects of corporate America. With clients including Aetna, JP Morgan, Merck, and Union Carbide, Roche designed many new headquarters in the suburbs. In these, he confronted pragmatic issues such as how to provide parking without erasing nature with asphalt, while at the same time crafting a new office typology for the increasingly self-contained work environments that these complexes present."
The exhibit in New York is over now, but it moves to Washington D.C. in June, for a few months, then on to Toronto in January 2013. We love forward-thinking architecture - very cool stuff!
at the museum
in the museum
the exhibit entry
more of the exhibit
Lucent Technologies building | Nurnberg, Germany
engineering geniusI’m still trying to figure out the under-pinning geometry of it all, but Festo’s flying, self-propelled - thing - is a testament to the power of geometry.
It’s also a reminder of how simple, unassuming surfaces and materials sometimes achieve the surprising and unexpected. Eyeglass lenses that dim in the sunlight, color-changing fabrics, Willy Wonka’s lick-able wallpaper (okay, maybe not such a great idea in practice) - from the real to the imagined, the possibilities are seemingly endless for what can be realized with the simple surface when the right materials are used.
Designers and architects seem to be constantly looking for new and interesting ways to change how people interact with spaces. It’s no longer cutting edge for surfaces to just . . . be. Innovation in materials and processes are bringing new possibilities to the boring old surface. Here at 3form, we’re obsessed with the latest technical innovations – regardless of application (often the best ideas come from unexpected industries) – and figuring out how to integrate them into our products in ways that are surprising and cool.
So . . . snozberry Varia, anyone?
Burger Lounge | studio MYIDFor the second in our new blog post series highlighting architecture and design firms that have impressed us, we talked with Melissa Young of Studio MYID.
translucent:
Tell us about the kind of work studio MYID does.
Melissa Young:
We do a lot of quick service restaurant work. In fact, about 80% of what we do is QSR, or "fast casual."
translucent:
What have been some of the challenges and opportunities, working in the QSR segment?
Melissa Young:
Well, in 2008, the restaurant business took a hit, along with the rest of the economy. As things started to look up, we came back with a fresh new approach. Many in QSR saw a shift toward more upscale dining, and wanted to create a fresh experience for guests - focusing on more organic foods, healthy choices, and a more pleasant dining atmosphere. Key issues included the use of sustainably responsible materials, high durability with long-lasting functionality, and an elevated level of design build-out in the fast casual space that meets the overall branding look of the client - all while looking great. So, these mixed needs really allowed us to flex our creative muscles and transform the whole face of QSR, with more energy and diversity of style put into the overall design.
translucent:
How did you approach this new design paradigm?
Melissa Young:
We found a materials manufacturer whose products hold up very well in the QSR environment - and also meet the sustainability requirements while being very high-design. 3form has performed consistently throughout these kinds of installations. 3form provides us the flexibility to design creative modifications in each location while maintaining brand consistency. Also, 3form makes it easy for us because of the diversity of products and services offered - from easy-to-install hardware to specially-engineered lighting - going beyond the mere panels.
translucent:
How has 3form specifically performed in the QSR space?
Melissa Young:
Well, it's basically bullet-proof! It can really take the abuse found in these eating establishments. It's unexpected, indestructible, and interesting for the guests - really providing a unique experience that brings the QSR world up a few notches. And the "green" nature of the materials is very much in line with the clients' ethos of trying to offer healthy and responsible choices.
translucent:
Well, thank you Melissa, for your time. We are so pleased to be able to make an impact in your design decisions and help you make the QSR space something refreshing and bold.
Melissa Young:
You're welcome. And thank YOU.
Burger Lounge | studio MYID
image courtesy treehugger.comWhat's the best electric car, green cookbook, or nature app? Who's the best celebrity activist? Or the best-looking endangered species (spoiler alert: it’s the Black-Footed Albatross)? TreeHugger’s Best of Green 2012 will answer these questions and so many more.
This year’s list – with 120+ winners in more than 100 categories, including Readers’ Choice– provides plenty of inspiration in green design, science, technology, and living.
And just in time for Earth Day, the Best Green Message on a T-shirt: "Run, Forest Run”:
sheer awesomeness
loving the grotesqueAlthough we are limited to using a carefully selected bunch of typefaces (as to follow our brand guidelines), here in the 3form design department we are constantly inspired by new, unique, and beautiful typefaces (and yes, we do sneak them into our design on occasion).
Right now we are going absolutely bananas over Brandon Grotesque. You may have seen this gem in the new-ish Comedy Central branding. They simplified their look without getting too serious, a success in our books! Not to mention, they paired it with another one of our faves, Eames Century Modern. Classy yet cool, this "cabinet of curiosities" font oozes style without even knowing it.
just my type
the 30 manufacturers signed on to pilot the HPD3form is all set to pilot a new health transparency industry standard.
We're proud to be participating in a two month pilot program to test and improve the Health Product Declaration Open Standard (HPD), a voluntary format for disclosing product content and related health concerns that are typically not reported even when a product, or a building, is certified “green.”
The program is administered by the Health Product Declaration Working Group, a volunteer organization comprised of experts from the community of designers, specifiers and building owner/operators that authored the HPD Open Standard format, which made its debut at Greenbuild 2011. See the current list of endorsers here.
Companies participating in the program manufacture a diverse array of building products, and have agreed to provide the HPD Working Group with feedback that the group will use to create a final version of the Open Standard that will be officially ratified and made available to the public later this year.
3form is excited with this effort to encourage manufacturers to be more transparent and make it easier for customers to find this important information.
For more information on the HPD and the pilot program, please visit the HPD Working Group.
my quilt!I'm making a quilt with quite a design story woven into its seams...
It all begins many years ago when my dad was going to architecture school at Berkeley. Design Research was a store in nearby San Francisco that specialized in modern European furnishings, in particular, Scandinavian design. (Design Research went out of business in 1978, but not before having an influence on such retailers as Design Within Reach, Crate & Barrel, and many others.)
In fact, I recently purchased the book, Design Research: the Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes, and it showed Marimekko fabric by the yards hanging from the ceiling in the store - quite similar to the displays I've seen in Crate & Barrel.
So, now we flash forward a couple of decades or so, and I came across some Marimekko fabrics my parents had originally picked up at that Design Research store back in the 60s. The fabrics had been in their basement and (barely) survived a flood. While some of the fabric was damaged, I was able to cut out the good pieces.
I used a Denyse Schmidt pattern to make the quilt. I met Denyse years ago at a gift show. She shares a similar story to LightArt - she launched her modern quilt collection at ICFF (we launched our lighting business at ICFF, also). Her background is in graphic design, and her quilts are nowhere near traditional. I purchased her Single Girl pattern with the idea of doing something with all this vintage fabric. Finally I had some time over the Christmas holiday to start my project, then we had a snow storm, and after being snowed in for a week, I was able to nearly finish my quilt.
I did have some reservations about cutting the fabric so small. I had a brief mental breakdown when I realized that the patterns were not as legible after I cut them! But when I considered the alternative (which would have been to discard the fabric because of the water stains), I realized the quilt as a whole would speak to the patterns and I still have some intact water stain free pieces, that I stretched on wood frames and hung on our wall.
The reverse side of the quilt (the red side) has current Marimekko fabric that I purchased from a Crate and Barrel Outlet store in San Diego. (Apparently that's where all those yards and yards of display fabric goes.)
I showed the quilt to my parents and they couldn't believe I took all that old fabric and made something from it. Then they looked closer and started picking out all their favorite patterns. I also included, right in the design, the pattern info that is usually found on the selvage of the fabric; it lists the artist, pattern and year.
The quilt isn't quite complete yet - I'm hoping to send it to a quilter to finish it.
As you can see below, I was just a little girl when these patterns first came out . . . but they are as fresh and vibrant as ever in their new life as a quilt.
me, circa 19??
May 15th, 2012 at 6:41 am
[...] 3form has announced that new products and new materials will be unveiled at the upcoming HDExpo May 15-17 in Las Vegas. Here is an excerpt straight from 3form’s blog, Translucent, about the new products: [...]