The Save A Sample! 10th year celebration, held at the Knoll Showroom last night, brought New York area architects and designers; design schools and their students; and manufacturers and their reps and dealers together in a common purpose....to redirect thousands of pounds of materials and samples "destined" for landfill into the hands of design students.

Forty New York area design firms donated two and a half tons of materials and samples to the Art Institute, FIT, Kean University, NY Institute of Technology, Parsons - The New School, Pratt Institute, Sage College and School of Visual Arts.  Contract Furniture Transport, Empire Office, Evenson Best, General Office Environments, General Office Interiors, Lane Office, Meadows Office Furniture, WB Wood|NY and Workwell Partners did the heavy lifting, picking up boxes from design firms and delivering them to the design schools.

To help the schools unpack and maintain their samples over the year, designers raised over $8,000 from manufacturers and their reps and dealers. "For some design schools, the Save A Sample! library scholarship provides the only source of funding for a school's library," said Suzanne Swift, Save A Sample!'s founder and the president of SpecSimple.com, a design industry portal.  "These scholarships have become very important."

New this year, Save A Sample! held a Student Hand Drawing Competition to encourage design students to focus on developing a valuable skill that many design professionals fear is growing out of favor in an increasingly digital world.  Antonio Garcia of the Art Institute won the top prize, a $1,500 Grand Prize scholarship.  First prize scholarships of $500 were won by Abigail Marcelo (NYIT), Jae Yong Dokgo (FIT), Konstantin Pauliushkou (SVA) and Laylah Mohammed (Pratt Institute).

"It was an honor to be an award-winner. Competitions like Save A Sample! certainly help to encourage students like myself to keep hand drawing alive," said Laylah Mohammad, Pratt's winner.

Jon Santiago, the Project Director of MIT's FabLab at the Sustainable South Bronx was the night's featured speaker.  Jon introduced the audience to the GreenFab program where high school students learn STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in the context of environmentally sustainable design.  "FabLab has grown into this wonderful program that has the potential to impact the lives of students and also impact the world if one of these students becomes the next scientist who comes up with the solution to help solve climate change," said Santiago.

To top the night off, Save A Sample! invited Manufacturers to donate a fun product to reward the top design firm fund raisers.  Six companies donated some great prizes:  Haworth - Brazo Lamp, Humanscale - Diffrient Technology Light, Design Within Reach - Charcoal Water Pitcher, ICF - Duke Armchair, Benjamin Moore - Nutura Paint, and Leef - Tatu Screen, who were won by: Perkins + Will, SOM, Ted Moudis Associates, HDR/CUH2A, RMJM and Mancini Duffy.

For a complete list of participants and sponsors or to sign up for next year's Save A Sample!, visit www.SpecSimple.com/SaveASample/.

For more information contact:

Suzanne Swift
t 212.352.2002 x12
f 212.352.1422
e infoedge@specsimple.com