Material Intelligence and its sponsors talked to over 200 architects and designers in the Material Intelligence Pavilion at IIDEX last week. What did we learn? That we’ve got a lot of teaching to do. Some highlights:

1. Many had heard of TFM (melamine) but thought it was all white, almond or grey; woodgrains and fashion colors were news to them.
2. Very few had seen 3-D laminates, but were intrigued and inspired by the samples we were showing. One architect looked upset, saying, “I could have used this in a big church I just finished. I wish I had known about this stuff.”
3. Dozens of advanced design students asked excellent questions, and had no preconceived ideas of materials and applications. These are the specifiers of the future, and they’re thirsty for the kind of knowledge we were offering.
4. We distributed hundreds of postcards encouraging designers and students to visit materialintelligence.com for more information and educational opportunities.

The MI pavilion was located next to the Think Materials exhibit, which was a perfect place for our message. We’re making plans for 2010’s IIDEX, NeoCon, and other relevant venues for a joint showing of materials.

Scenes from IIDEX, 24 & 25 September, Toronto:

Heavy traffic from designers, architects and students kept sponsors on their toes all day.

Sponsors included Flakeboard, SSI and Uniboard.

Design students, hungry for information on materials, had some tough questions.