How The Natural Stone Community Can Maximize New Image Database

Time is our most important asset, regardless of industry, role, or responsibility. The key to gaining time back is finding ways to be more efficient with common tasks. As a "people first" brand, it is our responsibility to help our internal team and community members save time. Building material selection is one of the biggest parts of the design process. Architects and designers need to see if the material fits the needs of their designs. Homeowners want to find inspiration from other projects. Masons and contractors want to see what the material will look like on a pallet. Authorized Dealers need to help their clients answer product questions. To save time on your next natural stone project, here's how to maximize our image database.

Screenshot of Veneer Swatches Inside Image Database

How The Tag System Works

The Image Database tag system is designed to make it easy to find images and videos of natural stone. The tags cover all of our materials, and your potential project characteristics, including:

• Application
• Collection
• Color
• Pattern
• Project Type
• Stone Type

This will help sort between all different types of images including everything from residential and commercial design projects to pictures of materials on a pallet as they would arrive on a job site. Use the tag system to find similar projects to the one you're working on or are envisioning.

Inspiration for Homeowners

• Utilize The Tag System
  • Start with color and application tags. In the search bar type in your application ie. "outdoor kitchen", "patio", "stone wall", "fire pit", "home exterior", etc. Using the same concept, you can narrow down options by color by searching for the color tags ie. "grey", "brown", "tan", or "multi" for color blends. Again, this will give you a wide range of options. 

Once you know what color or application you want, combine those tags to narrow down project photos and refine your selection. Adding more tags will continuously narrow down options to the desired look for your project.

Screenshot of "Grey", and "Outdoor Kitchen" Projects

How Architects Can Narrow Down Options

To add natural stone into a design, it needs to meet certain specifications and needs to match the desired look of the project. Having more parameters to work under in the image database is helpful when searching for a specific material.

• Utilize The Tag System
  • For architects and designers tags like “residential” or “commercial” will immediately help narrow down design options to the project type you are working on.
  • After narrowing down the project type, add tags for your design including application ("patio", "walkway", "home foundation", etc.), stone type ("granite", "quartzite", "fieldstone") color, and more. This will provide hyper-specific options that fit the needs of your project.
• Use Swatch Images For Initial Selection 
  • Searching "Swatch" will provide swatches for all 22 veneer collections.

Screenshot of "Residential", "Grey" , "Patio" Projects

Seeing The Stone Before It Arrives

For masons who are familiar with natural stone, it can be helpful to use the image database to show homeowners inspiration photos or different installation styles so they can hand-select their desired look. For masons planning a project and scheduling timelines, viewing the material before it arrives on site can make a huge impact. Utilizing the “Palletized Material” tag along with the "Collection Name" tag of whatever they ordered can help the mason find the exact material they ordered and see how it will arrive on site.

After Finding The Images You Need

Once you have added tags and narrowed down the results to your specific needs you can select some or all of the files and take these actions:

• Download the files you need.
• Share the files through a quick link URL, this URL can be shared with anyone that needs to see the images you have selected and can be viewed unlimited times.

All of these use cases can help save time and effort, and make it easier to work with natural stone. Whether you’re a homeowner, mason, contractor, architect, or a team member at one of our Authorized Dealers, taking advantage of this database will enhance your part in the design and build process.