
A color revolution is happening at 3form. The manufacturer of building materials and architectural hardware solutions has for years provided the A&D community with sustainable panel materials of resin, polycarbonate and glass for interior and exterior spaces, accompanied by a steady flow of brilliant aesthetic collection releases.
The company’s focus has to this point resided firmly with the technology and aesthetic of its interlayer – that is, the substance or aesthetic element pressed and baked into its architectural materials. Architects and designers can work with an extensive lineup of interlayers, including those with artisanal, organic, tailored, wood, textural, pure color, imagery and metallic elements.
In the past few years, however, 3form began studying close-up what designers and architects want out of the 3form product. How were designers using the products, what aspects of the products were presenting challenges, and what could 3form do to help solve those challenges and improve its offerings? The company sought to move away from thinking purely about what’s inside the product, and move toward a focus on what architects can and are actually doing with the product.

The in-depth study showed 3form that architects and designers are placing a high premium on color.
“People are focusing on using color more than anything else with our products,” said Randi Pastrovic, director of marketing at 3form. “Architects and designers often have to mix and match colors to streamline the aesthetic within a space, and that takes a lot of time. We’ve expanded our palette to 250 to make that easier.”
3form’s new system, called the Translucent Color Portfolio, begins with and revolves around and a toolkit of colors, which 3form carefully streamlined to an even 250 of the most impactful shades in commercial design. Once an architect/designer chooses a color, they can then apply it to one of five material types, including: Varia Ecoresin, Chroma, Struttura, Pressed Glass and Koda XT. Architects and designers can use these materials to create a whole range of different surface types, including horizontal, vertical and wall, and exterior surfaces.

With the Translucent Color Portfolio, 3form hopes to save architects and designers time by giving them streamlined tools to easily build spaces around pure color.
“Today, more than ever, architects and designers are short on time,” said Ms. Pastrovic, in the announcement by 3form. “While we can’t help them with that, we can be respectful of the little time they have by providing a curated selection of top notch 3form products and making them easy to specify.”
This year at NeoCon, we can expect to step into a brand new showroom experience at 3form, designed by Michael McGinn of Standard Issue Design. The new showroom will debut 3form’s new Translucent Color Portfolio with a series of 40-inch round rotating disks of color. Showroom guests will be able to travel through the movement and interaction of color and form as the disks, made of 3form’s core materials, revolve in place.
3form is keeping showroom renderings under wraps at the moment, but we took a peak and were not disappointed!
The Translucent Color Portfolio is the first of several changes 3form will undergo in the next few years, asp part of an internal reinventing process. Next up, 3form CEO Talley Goodson has a two-year transition plan for the company’s system of sampling that will reformulate how its shelving looks.
3form, and its new focus on color, is a superb example of a company challenging itself to evolve by questioning the strengths and weakness of its product and rethinking how the product is specified. We’re excited to see the new 3form showroom at NeoCon in June and to hear feedback from architects and designers who will be using its new system!