LibGuides: Interior Design Materials and Technology: Materials & Surface Finishes

Subscription & electronic resources (ebooks and databases) require current FIT username and password for access.

Visit the Materials Resource Lab, 6th floor of the Gladys Marcus Library | Goodman Resource Center (enter via the 5th floor)

Materials Resource Lab
The open collection includes physical samples of interior design materials that include soft materials (e.g. upholstery textiles and vinyl wall coverings) and hard materials (e.g. wood finishes and stone tiles).
Interior Building Materials - Find Books in OneSearch
Interior Building Materials - Keyword Search - MultiSearch - OneSearch - Books
Textile Fabrics and Interior Decoration - Find Books in OneSearch

Materials & Surface Finishes (Books)

Artstor on JSTOR
Database of art images from museums and other institutions included in JSTOR
Future Snoops
Trend reports & forecasting for fashion and other industries. Formerly called “Fashion Snoops.”
Material Connexion
A material database with access to innovative, sustainable materials and technologies from 75+ industries.

New users may set up an account by clicking on “Log In” at the upper right corner and following the prompts.

Faculty may book class tours to visit Material Connexion. Appointments are required. Please contact Lana Bittman - lana_bittman[at]fitnyc.edu for details.
Vogue Archive
Contains every issue of Vogue from 1892 to present. Each issue can be browsed cover-to-cover in searchable full-text format. Each page and image is reproduced in high-resolution color with indexing, enabling images to be searched by garment type, designer, and brand names, among others. All covers, advertisements, fold outs and pictorial features are captured as separate documents,which are also indexed, searchable, and viewable in high-resolution color.

Material Bank
Resource for samples from leading brands. Products - Brands - Inspiration - Workspace Register for free.
Material ConneXion
A material database with access to innovative, sustainable materials and technologies from 75+ industries.
Spec Simple
Resource for samples: Materials, Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E) and CSI. Explore Inspiration Types:
Innovation, Introducing (New Products), Sustainability, Palettes, Trends
Students must sign-in with their personal account assigned by the Interior Design Department.
Material Order
Material Order is the leading resource for design materials collections at academic and cultural institutions.
Decoration & Design Building (DDB)
The DDB is home to over 100 luxury showrooms and 750+ product lines and offers an unparalleled line - up of residential and commercial products.
Students: Stop by the Marketing office on the Concourse Level upon arrival to receive a list of Student-Friendly showrooms. This office also has samples of discontinued textiles from the showrooms which students are welcome to take. No appointment is necessary, just drop in any time.
Location: 979 Third Avenue, Concourse Level, New York, NY 10022

Material ConneXion (MCX) Insights
See News updates about NEW materials
Mindful Materials Library
Search for building products, components, materials and systems. Sign up for a free account to see full library.
Core77
Innovations in Materials
Materials Assemble - Digital Materials Library (London)
Use the digital library to see innovative uses of new and old materials and manufacturing processes.
Natural Stone Catalog - Natural Stone Institute
"This catalogue is a collection of images and material details to help you identify appropriate natural stone materials for your projects."

Textures.com
Textures.com is a website that offers digital pictures of fabrics, wood, metal, bricks, plastic, and much more. These images are called textures and can be used for graphic design, visual effects, in computer games and any other situation where you need a nice pattern or background image. You can download up to 15 images for free every day with account creation.
Pixabay
100% Creative Commons Zero, free to download images for manipulation. Includes photography, vector graphics, and video. Use advanced search to limit by texture / background.
A Library of 100 Downloadable Photoshop Textures - ArchDaily
ArchDaily article with Materials and Texture images from Flickr.