Save a Sample! In your City

Feb. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Save A Sample!, the New York based design industry recycling drive, is expanding! Started in 1999, Save A Sample! offers a solution to design firms overflowing with materials and to design students thirsting for them. Since its inception, Save a Sample! has helped some of the nation’s busiest design firms donate thousands of pounds of materials to local design schools. Now, heeding the call from cities around the country, design firms in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C., will be able to donate boxes brimming with unneeded materials to SpecSimple.com's Save A Sample! Students all across the country will benefit throughout the year by having a professional set of resources to work with.

"We've always wanted to expand Save A Sample!’s reach to benefit a larger number of design firms and design students," says Suzanne Swift, Save A Sample!'s creator and president of SpecSimple.com. SpecSimple.com, founded in 1993, is the industry's first web portal for design industry information and the home of Virtual Library, the industry's acclaimed product research tool.  "With the help of industry sponsors and local furniture dealers, we will finally be able to do so."

"With more design firms around the country finding a good home for their samples, a greater number of design schools and their students are in for a treat," projects Swift. In addition to distributing samples, Save a Sample! has set up a scholarship program for participating students and prizes for participating A&D firms. Supported by local chapters of the AIA, ASID, IIDA, SMPS and USGBC, Save A Sample! has collected over 10 tons of materials and raised over $50,000 in scholarships since its first drive in 1999. Last year's scholarships were distributed to the Art Institute, FIT, Kean University, NYITl, Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts.

Save a Sample!’s impact on the design world is noteworthy. According to Linda O’Shea, Design Chair at Kean University, "Save A Sample! offers our students access to the newest architectural materials and finish products available…I have seen a great improvement in terms of creativity, innovation, and imagination on student materials and finishes boards since being involved in this wonderful program. It is like Christmas morning in the design studios when the Save A Sample! boxes arrive at our school!" Save a Sample! brings together the design industry to help enrich the educational experience of tomorrow’s designers.


This year's Save A Sample! runs from April 5 - 7th, 2011.
For additional information, about Save A Sample!, please visit http://www.specsimple.com/SaveASample.


For more information or to hold a Save A Sample! in your city, contact: Suzanne Swift @ 212.352.2002 x12 . infoedge@specsimple.com . http://www.specsimple.com .
Where the World of Design Connects!

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Save a Sample!, a popular materials recycling drive, creates a "second life" for unused brochures, fabrics, finish cards and other samples from design firms throughout the country. Through this environmentally-friendly venture, ‘Save A Sample!’ provides design colleges, schools, and arts organizations with materials for their resource libraries and classrooms. Save A Sample also raises money for Resource Library Scholarships at participating design schools.