Material & Product Resources: Material Bank

What is the Material Bank University Program? 

• Material Bank, launched in January, 2019, offers a "University Program" that works hand-in-hand with educators in the classroom by providing a platform for  interior design students to collaborate, study, and learn about material types, attributes, trends, and more.
• Students and educators from participating schools can access the world's largest material library and rely on material experts and Brand Reps when needed. 
• The platform powers complex searches across hundreds of brands in seconds.

How to Access

• The program is free of charge but does require a 1-hour virtual training session with Material Bank for both educators and students who will be participating.
• Please sign up on Material Bank's Training Calendar page for one of their year-round sessions. You will be guided on how to sign up for an account during the course of the session. 
• Remember, you will not be able to have your registration for the site accepted by Material Bank until this virtual training program is completed.

Does Material Bank Give Out Samples for University Program Participants?

• No, the University Program is designed around curriculum study and therefore does not allow participants to sample materials. If the need for sampling presents itself, program participants are encouraged to contact Brand Partners via the Rep Directory for these types of requests.

Check out these links to informative industry news about Material Bank:

Architectural Digest

Built in NYC

Business of Home

Designboom

Digital Commerce 360

Folio Magazine

Interior Design

TechCrunch

WorkDesign Magazine

Save, organize and share materials on customized boards! Invite your project team to your board to collaborate in real-time.

Simply pin a material to your virtual board anywhere you see the pushpin icon.

The "Tag" feature allows you to create tags for any of the materials on your board. These are useful as additional search filters and when collaborating to see comments (e.g. why a particular material was chosen, etc.). 

Note the various icons/symbols that provide additional functionality:  

• "Export" = export your board to Excel as a spreadsheet or finish schedule.
• "PDF" =  instantly  create folders of any related available manufacturer spec sheets and collateral.
• "Share" =  email your board.The recipient must have a Material Bank account to view the board. 
• "Plus" symbol = initiate a collaboration with others Material Bank members in real time (the board can be made "View Only").
•  Your initials in the yellow circle = the owner of the board.

 Additional Tips:

• Your own visual content can also be uploaded (up to 2MB per file) onto your board using the gray box with the plus symbol. 

• To DELETE an item from your board, use the black "Select"  button (pictured in the second screenshot above) and then reselect the items you wish to delete (the checkbox will turn yellow). Then select the trash icon. 

Your board when closed wil appear as a square with 4 materials displayed. Simply click on the board to expand it and see the full contents.. 

Here you can see the above board expanded:

Search Filters

• Search filter options are advanced with over 160 filters to find the right materials for your project, faster than ever.
• Filters display specifically for your search criteria to help you easily narrow results.

Search Saving & Search Shortcuts

• Create shortcuts for your frequently-used search and filter criteria. Quickly view search results with just one-click and discover new materials added. Follow these 3 steps:

1) At the top right corner of your search page select Save Search

2) Sve the search and designate a search term (e.g. shortcut name) for the search. 

3) To access a personal search shortcut, select your account button (the yellow circle with your initials) and you will see any saved searches you've created. 

Knowledge Bank™ is described by Material Bank as "an unbiased source of material knowledge designed to educate architects, interior designers, and design professionals on key material insights."

This free resource is an extension of Material Bank and is created and maintained by its material research team in collaboration with industry experts.

Here you will find a Glossary of terms, Popular Terms, Featured Terms, Featured Articles, the ability to Discover Brand Partners, an email signup for a new initiative called Learning Tracks™ (curated programming from Knowledge Bank’s team of experts and our brand partners) and product quiz content. 

Ask an Expert” is a free service available to Material Bank members. As trained design professionals, their experts answer questions to help you find the materials you need.

While material sampling is not available at the University participant level, Material Bank offers a robust array of tools and features for the study and specification of materials for school projects. 

Brand Pages

• Discover new brands at Material Bank! 
• Access brand pages to learn more about and easily connect with the companies that design and fabricate the materials you love.

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Pricing

• Pricing on Material Bank functions similarly to Open Table. Users will see a series of dollar signs to indicate price ranges. $ $$ $$$ $$$$

Product Info

• Comprehensive  information is provided for every material  product page. From performance insights and technical data, to downloads of brand collateral and specifications!

Rep Directory

• All of the sales rep information for each brand appears in a single, easy-to-access location (see the link at the top right of screen near your yellow profile button). 
• Note that while the Contact Rep button will be grayed out, you may reach out to a Rep outside of the platform if you require further information. 

Material Bank's "Discover" page  is a great way to gain inspiration, follow industry trends, view featured materials, new materials, new palettes, new collections,  and more!