Samples: A Story of Love and Hate

One of the growing concerns of the A/D community is the quantity of samples that pile up in their materials libraries. While necessary, product samples represent a logistical, as well as an environmental challenge for most specifiers. In recent years, architecture and design firms have invested significant efforts in segregating the more eco-friendly products that are available to them, and to try to limit the number of samples that they use and store. And let's face it, in the current economic landscape, manufacturers are increasingly concerned about the cost of their sampling programs.

While Lamin-Art is committed to providing its clients the samples that they need, when they need them, we are also offering alternative ways to access our products.

High-resolution images of every item in our line can be downloaded from our website. While final material selections should always be made from actual product samples, those prints can provide an indication of the overall look and structure of an abstract or wood print when making initial selections or presenting ideas to a client.

Pearlescence.com and our Pearlescence Catalog are valuable resources, devised and designed to allow our customers to see each and every one of the 300 possible permutations of our 50 colors and 6 finishes. These tools can help narrow down options to the few colors and/or finishes that best fit a project's color palette and overall design.

Photographic representation of 4' x 10' sheets of our Premium Wood Prints can be downloaded from our website, or viewed in our Premium Wood Prints Portfolio. Many of our clients have told us that these have proven to be very helpful; allowing them - and their customers - to visualize the grain structure of each item without having to order a large sized sample.

We encourage you to let your Lamin-Art Architectural Representative know if you have extra samples of our products that you would like to dispose of. We will donate the discontinued samples to design schools, and re-use the current ones. Programs such as Save a sample! can also help you de-clutter your library while contributing to a good cause. We encourage you to research sample recycling programs and design schools in your area.

New Architectural Representative for Montreal

We are pleased to inform our Eastern Canadian customers that we have added a new member to our team of Architectural Representatives. Ms. Melanie Mangal, who's based in Montreal, is exclusively devoted to assisting our clients - architects, interior designers, and fabricators - located in the province of Quebec and eastward.

Melanie is available for product presentations, library updates, and to answer any questions related to our products and their use. She can be contacted at 514.604.5799 or mmangal@laminart.com.

Please note that Prolific Marketing-Delivering Design remains in charge of sample fulfillment for Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces. You may call them at 905.636.0750, or simply request samples online in English or in French. More information.

Your Questions, Answered

A few customers have called and e-mailed us recently asking for clarification on the availability of Chrysalis^® and Catalyst^® products.

As a reminder, concurrent with the release of our expanded Pearlescence^® solid colors line last Spring, we have made the Chrysalis and Catalyst finishes available on ALL 50 Pearlescence colors. All former Chrysalis and Catalyst items are still available, but under different names and part numbers. Please refer to our cross-reference table to identify your old favorites, visit Pearlescence.com to view all available color and finish options, or contact Customer Service at 800.323.7624 in case of doubt.

Also, feel free to send us your questions at newsletter@laminart.com, we'll gladly answer them for the benefit of all our readers in a future issue of The Source.

Free Tickets to AIA Wisconsin

Each year, the AIA Wisconsin holds a very successful convention and product expo. Lamin-Art will proudly be joining the ranks of over 100 exhibiting companies, showcasing our Veneer-Art High-Performance Wood Veneers, at the 2010 AIA Wisconsin Convention and Expo, taking place in Madison April 28 & 29.


The expo floor will be open to visitors on Wednesday, April 28 from 3 to 7 pm and Thursday, April 29 from 11 am to 2 pm. Free tickets can be obtained here.

We invite our Wisconsin and Northern Illinois customers to come and meet our Architectural Representative, Sarah Chiger, and learn more about the unique features of our highly durable wood veneers.

More information about the convention and expo can be found here.

We hope to see you in Madison!