New York City Furniture; ICFF

Materials Matter™
In the absence of material expression, design is sort of like the sound of one hand clapping. Can you hear it now? No. Can you see the idea? Probably not. Does it work? Hardly, or at least not in the way the designer intended. That’s why there’s no greater resource for designers and design-watchers than Materials Matter. GLM’s annual joint venture with Material ConneXion, Inc., Materials Matter fascinates, delights, and, yes, occasionally confounds even design’s most technologically savvy practitioners – the materials wonks – with its remarkable showcase of next-generation materials and production equipment. The featured materials this year will include polymers, glass, ceramics, carbon-based substances, cement-based compounds, metals, natural materials and their derivatives. In-depth exploration of processes will include everything from injection molding to rapid prototyping and more. Given its mission to match designers and manufacturers with new technologies and production methods, Material ConneXion regularly updates its resource libraries on three continents – libraries that at any one time contain as many as 4,000 materials from a wide array of fields and disciplines. Creative solutions come from many sources, among them serendipity and cross-fertilization, as the inspiring materials and methods of Material ConneXion constantly prove. That’s the sound of two hands clapping.

from: http://www.icff.com/special-features/features

www.icff.com