Why We Built Library Concierge
The architectural materials library hasn’t truly been re-evaluated in over 50 years. In its original form, the firm library was meant to be a tool to help architects and designers stay inspired and make groundbreaking design decisions. But as the world and our way of working changed, the library did not. In our present world, the firm library fails to serve designers and poses an enormous financial burden to every firm that has one. It is difficult to keep updated and organized; an analog aggravation to designers and brands alike.
Like so many other industries, construction is in the midst of figuring out how to support remote-friendly work. How can you find the perfect product solution from your home office? How can you maintain the relationships critical to your design success across time zones and digital vacuums? Where do you turn to when your firm library is currently collecting (more) dust in your now-vacant firm studio?
You could order more and more samples from reps, sample banks, brands, and online resources. The reality, though, is that those processes are just amplifying and exacerbating the sampling problem without addressing the most important thing: helping architects and designers stay inspired and make groundbreaking design decisions.
Source has spent 2020 looking to the future. We asked ourselves: what is the real problem in this industry? Is it quick access to more samples? It is a shared physical library? Is it cloud-based file sharing?
We found that it was really none of those things.
The real problem in this industry is that the process of finding that perfect product is broken. It is complex, chaotic, and requires that designers evaluate hundreds of non-standardized data points on every product to make their very important decisions.
So, we started from scratch. With continuous feedback from our architecture, design and construction community, we built a new specification process. We believe in an approach to specification that balances data with creativity, information with intuition. We believe it all starts with better access to trusted details at the beginning of the specification process.
Source is a first of its kind decision-making platform. Digital first, supported by instant access to physical materials when you need them.
Our platform is built for transparency and accessibility. It allows you to compare and evaluate products based on standardized information before you ever order a sample. It gives you a streamlined way to communicate with reps when you need their expertise or project support. It gives you a partner whose entire job is to help you navigate the maze of stakeholder expectations in order to achieve your design intention.
Library Concierge is a foundational feature of the decision-making platform we’ve created. It’s built to help designers with one key question along the specification journey: How does this product look and feel?
By providing same-day access to the physical samples, books, binders, tip cards, and collateral, after you’ve narrowed down your options digitally, we are providing forward-thinking firms with the flexible, phygital solution that today’s designers, architects and contractors need.
Join us. Stop tracking down products and start sourcing them. You’ll have more time to design, more space available in your firms, and better access to the information you need to make groundbreaking design decisions.
