This page aims to bring together all of our specialist information resources to do with materials and their role in Industrial Design.

Materials & Product Libraries

• Material ConneXion
  An image library of materials, covers architectural applications, furniture design, sports design, consumer products, event/store design, apparel and automotive.
• Ecospecifier
  A database of environmentally preferable products and materials.
• Material Explorer
  A freely available website with material information. Requires the creation of an account to use.

Standards & Statistics

• Australian Standards Online
  Complete collection of current Australian standards, draft standards, ACA technical standards and handbooks. PDF format
• ASTM: American Society for Testing Materials Standards Online Service
  The complete collection of current ASTM standards, search by keyword or browse by subject
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
  The central source for statistical information about Australia and Australians. Includes Census data
• Global Market Information Database (GMID)
  Key business intelligence on countries, markets and companies worldwide. Has demographic, economic and country data, retail sales data, consumer market size and product information
  Please Note: You will need to create a login to use GMID as of 2010

Patents

• Google Patent Search
  Part of Google Scholar
• IP Australia
  IP Australia is the federal government agency responsible for granting rights in patents, trade marks and designs. Includes examples of famous Australian Designs >Trademarks and Patents
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
  Searchable index of patents and trademarks, link to parts of the website from the first time visitors menu.
• Patent Room - the art of industrial design
  Features drawings from original US patent applications, an interesting site about patent history

Images

• ARTstor
  Artstor has some great industrial design images, and also images from the art world more broadly.
• Britannica Image Quest
  This is a huge image database, contained within it is the Grove Art Online collection. Well worth a look.
• Powerhouse Museum
  The Powerhouse Museum's database allows you to search for many objects in their collection, from 1880 to the present day. This interactive database contains thousands of zoomable images and research into the Museum's collection, much of it made public for the first time.