During peak tradeshow season, many of the A&D events we cherish most throughout the year were put on hold due to an evolving global health crisis, including the biggest of them all, NeoCon.
To help supplement the loss of the in-person meetings, new people and products, showroom displays, and more that visitors can always find at these high-traffic shows, interiors+sources created a brand-new program to help keep the inspiration going and find ways to keep you connected with the latest and greatest in interior design.
Called Inspire, the online program is in collaboration with NeoCon’s NeoConnect initiative and will feature virtual showrooms from dozens of companies in the industry.
“Inspired ideas can come from challenging situations. With NeoCon and other events canceling, we needed a way to tell product stories in a new light,” says Steven Sloan, vice president of Commercial Buildings Group for Stamats, interiors+sources’ parent company.
Unlike any other program currently available, Inspire offers visitors a digital way to view a company’s showroom and learn more about the products on display, similar to how one might visit a showroom in person at a tradeshow.
The sketches are being created in partnership with students James Jung and Heshan Li from Georgia’s Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), who are taking exhibit renderings, floor plans and images to create a unique, highly stylized hand sketch. Each sketch is then digitized with detailed product information and hosted on inspire.interiorsandsources.com and NeoCon.com.
“The way we design has evolved as the technology available to us has progressed,” notes Sloan. “Virtual reality and computer renderings have replaced pencil sketches and models. Now, in-person visits to showrooms and exhibits have become virtual. With that, interiors+sources is bringing together the best of both worlds. With a digitized version of hand-sketch artistry, what was old is new and fresh once again.”
Launching in June, Inspire will showcase dozens of virtual showrooms from well-known brands like Concertex, Trinity Furniture, Patcraft, Sloan, J+J Flooring and many more. Visitors are encouraged to check back often as new sketches will be added regularly.
As Sloan says: “This program doesn’t end at NeoCon. We can continue to tell product stories and show inspiration from showrooms throughout the year via the Inspire program.”
You can browse all Inspire showrooms currently available here. Interested in joining the program? Email Sloan at [email protected].
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