We spoke to Foresso about sustainability in interiors and the sampling industry.
Foresso offers a new type of material for the design industry. Their low carbon, locally sourced and plastic free timber terrazzo allows designers to make informed material decisions without compromising on style. We spoke to Foresso about sustainability in interiors and the sampling industry.
As a business that has worked hard to decarbonise our manufacturing process and started out by wanting to intervene in an economy that would release the carbon of the wood that we use back into the atmosphere, we feel that the opportunity to sample digitally first would reduce the number of physical samples that just end up on a shelf or in the bin. For this reason, we were attracted to Mattoboard’s technology and their approach through virtual sampling with VSamples© - this adds value to a currently extremely wasteful industry.
Sampling is a necessarily curious process. It is not unreasonable to need to see an idea come together with all the elements next to one another to get a sense of “'what would that look like?” That question often needs to be answered before a decision can be made. Foresso is a new material which puts it in a more uncertain position than well-established options, meaning, we send out a lot of samples. Sending samples requires us to make a lot of samples and with that comes all the energy, manpower and transport associated with physical samples.
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We hope that we will be less limited by distance and transport now to reach projects outside of the UK that might otherwise see a UK based company as too difficult to deal with. Since Brexit we have seen sample orders from the EU and other overseas territories drop off dramatically. I would hope that Mattoboard would put us in competition with other less sustainable products by removing the need for physical samples in the first instance.
It would seem that virtual sampling with VSamples© would allow for designers to create mood boards much faster and with more variations, giving them a flexibility that’s currently only available to very large firms. Currently, they mainly rely on large, mainstream suppliers that have the capacity to send samples on a massive scale. This limitation has perhaps led to some of the bland design that persists due the need for designers to rely on suppliers to get samples out in time and often to multiple stakeholders for approval processes.
Virtual sampling with VSamples© removes many of these barriers and fosters a more adventurous approach to design, giving the opportunity to experiment without the reliance on just a few suppliers with warehouses full of samples. Of course the reduction in carbon emissions is great but if that were the only selling point it would not succeed, change the market and the benefits throughout the system follow.
If you want to read more about why brands are choosing to turn their products into VSamples©, click here. If you are a Supplier, a Manufacturer or a Distributor and want to convert your products to VSamples© for use on Mattoboard. You can book a demo here.
Mattoboard is a 3D tool for designers. Our drag and drop technology helps you design quickly & experiment endlessly. Stay on trend and use visual storytelling to create mood and material boards.
