Hi, I'm Phnam.
Hi, I'm Mardis.
And we're the hosts of Future Future, where two designers talk about the future of everything.
We're in the business of turning science fiction into reality for a better future.
And today, we're going to talk about material libraries.
When we look at the products around us in everyday life - consumer electronics,
any type of product for your car -
it's always that same fifteen materials.
It's plastics. It's glass. It's aluminum.
And possibly wood if they're really pushing their boundaries.
And so we like to expand on that.
And one of the ways we do that is by accessing a material library.
And today, we're going to talk about what it is to have a material library, and how to use it.
Starting 2021, Nonfiction now hosts a material library created by Material ConneXion,
a New York City based material science company that gathers a lot of materials -
and most importantly sustainable materials - from all over the world.
Our first floor at the office now hosts hundreds and hundreds of materials that you can touch and smell and bend and read about.
What I love about the material library is...I'll find myself having to take a break from the computer, stretch my legs, walk around.
I'll go - just like a traditional public library - I'll go down and hang out in the library.
And I'll peruse the wall of different materials and look around.
It's really exciting and inspiring to discover things that I hadn't seen before,
or even dive in deeper into materials that I thought I knew,
but that have such a rich, deep back story of process and application that I had never really seen before.
So why do we have a material library?
As Mardis just talked about, inspiration is one of [the reasons].
Another one is aesthetics.
You might be looking for aesthetics that fall within your ideas that are surprising,
and can inspire you to go beyond what is expected in a product.
You can also think about storytelling.
A material can actually help take a very boring and mundane product
and make it exceptional just because it's using this specific material.
And then often we have performance considerations.
You know, if you're going to put something on a consumer electronic,
it's going to be very different than a product you're going to put on the space station.
And then finally, cost and process.
Maybe two materials you're looking at are both very interesting, but one is easier to manufacture.
It's easier to access. It has many more opportunities to put into the marketplace.
And like any library, you have to update it often.
So having a material library that is updated often means we have access to the latest and greatest.
The lightest. The most beautiful. The most eco-friendly.
So we want to make sure that the rest of the world has access to that latest and greatest by working with us.
So this brings up the question: should you have a physical library or a digital library?
Well, I think you should have both, as we do here at Nonfiction.
So with the digital library, we can look online.
We have a search engine where you can search all different types of characteristics, different types of aesthetic.
You can look up sustainability. You can look up process and many other aspects of a material.
And then filter down. What type of material would apply best to your product design needs?
And based on the results of this search,
you can have a selection of the materials that might fit your application.
And then from there, you can contact the vendors directly and really learn about what the company does
and how they can help you take their material and make your product successful.
If we look at a physical library, that has a lot more opportunity locally.
When we have clients in the office, we can do physical brainstorm sessions and actually have the client hold the material.
And this is great for inspiration, not only for ourselves but as I said, for the client.
Really getting them on board
and really challenging their assumptions of what a product design might be or look like.
And then after the brainstorm, we'll often take these materials and actually put them on a physical mood board.
So they can live around the studio.
We can reference them on a regular basis.
It becomes a part of the living storyline of the product development that we're going through right now.
There's a lot of surprise that happens in the presence of a physical material library.
You might look at apiece of leather and then read that it's made from apple peels for example.
And that can trigger a new idea for a product that's vegan.
You know, vegan leathers is a trend that is wonderful right now
that helps replace animal-based products
and makes the carbon footprints of certain companies a lot lower than they were ten years ago.
The material story is ever evolving.
There are new materials coming up all the time, and new applications of those materials.
And I think having that open conversation, and sharing these with your colleagues and industry professionals and other vendors
and partners is key to us all making the world a better place.
So put your comments down below, and tell us - what's exciting you?
What new materials or processes are coming up?
Until next time, thank you for joining us on this material journey,
and we look forward to seeing you again.