One of the most active and exciting designers working today, Spanish born Patricia Urquiola exhibits Landscape, her recent porcelain range for the ceramic manufacturers Rosenthal.

From dinnerware to tea sets as well as cutlery and glass, this exquisite design, which took over four years to develop, combines smooth simplicity with richly textured surface pattern.

Patricia Urquiola – Purely Porcelain presents the whole process from concept, through the process of manufacture, to finished product.

See the complex, experimental and collaborative stages that transform a vision into a finished usable product.

Patricia Urquiola – Purely Porcelain can be viewed at London’s Design Museum. The exhibition runs until 25 January 2009.

Definitely a date for the diary for Alessi fans, Alberto Alessi will be at London’s Design Museum and in conversation with Museum Director Deyan Sudjic on 24 November at 7.15pm.

Alessi will be responding to footage from a selection of the ‘Design Interviews’, a series of DVDs produced by Museo Alessi, co-edited by Museo Alessi and Edizioni Corraini and directed by Anna Pitscheider.

Featured in the short films are five masters of design - Andrea Branzi, Achille Castiglioni, Alessandro Mendini, Richard Sapper and Ettore Sottsass.

To reserve seats call 020 7940 8783 or they can be booked online at Ticketweb.

Designer makers from the Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft will be exhibiting their unique hand crafted wares at Ludlow College’s Harley Centre.

Guild members will be joined by designer makers from the Worcester Guild of Designer Craftsmen at this annual selling exhibition, aptly titled ‘Showing Off’.

The exhibition is running on Saturday October 25^th and Sunday October 26^th and will feature over 20 highly skilled contemporary craftspeople who will be displaying their unique and inspirational handcrafted items.

‘Showing Off’ will showcase a wide selection of quality, contemporary work by Guild members and guests. Disciplines on show include: ceramics, leatherwork, furniture, basket making, glass, jewellery, textiles and forge work.

Recently elected chairman of the Guild, potter Ralph Jandrell, works in the picturesque Ironbridge Gorge. He designs and makes a unique range of quality ceramics in his studio at the Coalport China Museum continuing the tradition of ceramic excellence established there over many years. Ralph said “‘Showing Off’ is a great event to be involved with and this year, we have over 20 talented designer makers exhibiting their exclusive wares.”

Ralph continued “Ludlow is a really wonderful place for us all to exhibit, as there is always such a fantastic atmosphere there”.

Shropshire Guild members showing include metal designer Julie Grose. The youngest member of the group, Julie works from her forge near Broseley creating contemporary, organic and imaginatively sculpted pieces for the home and garden, inspired by geometric shapes and natural forms. Julie told us “as a designer-maker you spend most of your time working alone, so exhibiting at events such as ‘Showing Off’ really is a chance to show off!”

Shropshire Guild member Ted Bruce from Ellesmere is celebrating his tenth year in basketmaking this year. Initially self taught, Ted studied with some of the best basketmakers in Britain.

Ted said “I am inspired by the beautiful Shropshire countryside in which I have lived and worked for the last 20 years.” Working with English willow, some of which he grows himself, Ted continued “I make strong attractive and functional baskets for a wide variety of home and garden situations. Most of my baskets are of my own design and are multi-purpose”.

Worcester Guild Members include Gavin Davidge from Hanley Swan. Gavin’s workshop is based at the foot of the Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire, where he designs and makes original furniture using temperate hardwoods from sustainable sources. Each piece of wood is chosen to ensure its grain and figure is sympathetic to the whole form.

Judith Price, who lives near Bewdley is also a member of the Worcester Guild. Judith designs and makes jewellery from her workshop at her home. Inspired by her garden and the surrounding countryside. Her pieces have a sense of natural growth. She sometimes incorporates gemstones into the work which is made mainly in silver and 18ct. gold.

The ‘Showing Off’ selling exhibition offers free admission and will be open from 10am-5pm on Saturday and then from 10am – 4pm on Sunday.

Fully established at the forefront of contemporary fashion design, the twice named “British Designer of the Year,” Hussein Chalayan, is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitudes to new technology.

This exhibition, running from 21 January – 17 May 2009, will be the first comprehensive presentation of Hussein Chalayan’s work in the UK. Spanning fifteen years of experimental projects, the exhibition explores Chalayan’s creative approach, his inspirations and the many themes which influence his work such as cultural identity, displacement and migration.

Exhibits will include ‘Afterwards’ which explores the notion of ‘wearable, portable architecture’ in which furniture literally transforms itself into garments; ‘Airborne’ bringing the latest LED technology to fashion design with a spectacular dress consisting of Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights, and ‘Readings’ a dress comprising of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light.

Presenting fashion as a site of exploration and as expressions of concepts, Hussein Chalayan challenges preconceived notions of what clothing can mean, rather than as garments with only functionality in mind. Motivated by ideas and disciplines not readily associated with fashion, Hussein Chalayan’s pioneering work crosses between architecture, design, philosophy, anthropology, science and technology.

Since 2003, Hussein Chalayan has also directed art projects, including the short films “Temporal Meditations”, “Place to Passage” and “Anaesthetics”. In 2005, he represented Turkey at the 51^st Venice Biennale with Absent Presence, featuring Tilda Swinton.

Hussein Chalayan’s presentations demonstrate his unique ability to combine beautiful and wearable clothes for today with an intriguing vision of the future.

Hussein Chalayan is the creative director of PUMA, which acquired a majority stake in Chalayan’s London-based fashion business and Hussein Chalayan brand in February 2008

Ticket costs are: Adults £8.50; Concessions £6.50; Students £5.00; Under 12s free. Advance bookings can be made by calling 020 7940 8783 or online at www.ticketweb.co.uk

We spotted an interesting designer today.

Born in 1969, he studied interior design at Saint-Luc Institute before opening his own Studio in Brussels. In 2000 Lust started to design for MDF Italia, an ongoing relationship which was the start of his collaboration with leading international producers such as Driade, De Padova, Baleri Italia and Extremis.

His work is clearly identifiable through the visible tension he gives to his objects, and the curves inspired by his innovative (de)formation process of metallic surfaces. He has received dozens of awards including Compasso d’Oro and his work has appeared in over 50 exhibitions. He is a regular feature in international design publications.

” A wonderful aspect of Xavier’s work is the illusion of lightness and motion,” writes the Russian critic Olga Bozhko. “In his designs he manages to express what seems impossible. Its seems as though his works are not created; they are born.”

Lust says “I work towards a design ideal in which created forms have an eternal justness, to the point where they seem self-evident. My creative process starts from an intimate understanding of the way that a material behaves. My starting point is often one of structure rather than aesthetics, but the result is a natural beauty dictated by the atomic structure of materials: a harmonious vocabulary of curves and lines that have an intuitive human appeal”.

We love his Baobab Coat Hanger: A winning piece of furniture, nearly a sculpture of modern art which recalls the Tropical tree of Baobab.

Born in Brussels in 1978, Belgian designer Sylvain Willenz studied Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London from 2001 to 2003 and in 2004 Sylvain opened his own studio, based in Brussels.

Sylvain’s works deal with projects from lighting to product design and furniture. His work is characterized by a clear love for materials and processes and bear a no-nonsense approach to design. The work-spirit is straightforward and uncomplicated. His projects celebrate design, archetypes, and industry.

Things like rubber, post-its, elastics, graphics, stickers, plasticine, Internet, music, toys, highways, flowers, cacti, fat books, chewing-gum, spraycans, cars, graffiti, shoes and cooking, are just a few underlying inspirations in SylvainWillenzDesignStudio’s works.

One of his many designs that caught our eye is Petrol: a rug assembled in two to three layers from machine-cut felt discs. The three different diameters of discs create the organic and random pattern of the rug, which can be produced in infinite configurations and formats. Petrol can run down a corridor, or spill from one room into another, like a moving organism.

Sylvain Willenz can be contacted at info@sylvainwillenz.com

Design Cities tells the story of contemporary design through the focus of seven key cities, in each case looking at their most creative moments. Whilst focusing on how specific periods have contributed to the evolution of design, the exhibition also investigates the ways in which design has shaped contemporary culture.

Beginning in London at the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851, and moving to the Vienna of Adolf Loos in 1908, to the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928, to the Paris of Le Corbusier in 1936. In the post-war period, the exhibition moves to the Los Angeles of Charles and Ray Eames in 1949, then to Milan in 1957 and Tokyo’s creative flowering in 1987. Finally, returning to present day London which is once again the world’s leading centre for design, the base for Ron Arad and Ross Lovegrove, Jasper Morrison and many other leading contemporary designers.

The exhibition features a full range of objects from textiles and fashion to industrial pieces, furniture and prints and it includes design classics such as chairs by Charles and Ray Eames, as well as work by a spectrum of designers that together evoke an impacting impression of their era.
Key exhibits include work by William Morris, Christopher Dresser, Adolf Loos, Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Achille Castiglioni, Issey Miyake and Ron Arad.

Design Cities investigates the tangible link between design and the city and celebrates the key achievements of this relationship.

Exhibition Curator and Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic adds “One fruitful way to understand the development of design is to look at how certain cities, at specific moments in their histories, have moved the practice of design on. That is the thesis of this exhibition. It looks at what it was that made a sequence of cities, at various moments, shift the direction taken by design.”

Design Cities has been organised by the Design Museum, London in association with Istanbul Modern and is curated by Deyan Sudjic. The exhibition opened at Istanbul Modern, Turkey in April and is currently at the London Design Museum running until 4 January 2009.

Jewellery boxes are traditionally made from leather, wood or glass and although many are practical there are not many that can claim to be stylish, innovative and functional. The Joya Jewellery Box breaks the mould and reveals a new way to store all your treasures.

From the first moment you handle a Joya Box, you realise this is something quite unique. Inspired by this season’s trends, the hugely tactile box unties with a luxurious ribbon to open up and reveal the most beautiful and stylish hand-finished jewellery box you have ever seen.

‘Sleeping Beauty’ is the first from this collection of limited edition jewellery boxes. Made from a combination of Chinese paper and pulp board, the box showcases several unique and innovative features. Necklaces have a unique divided storage layer to prevent tangles once and for all. The 2 drawers open simultaneously for ease of use, and they also reveal two removable sections which give way to two hidden storage sections – the perfect hiding place for all your treasures and mementos. A veritable Aladdin’s Cave just waiting to be discovered.

The ‘Sleeping Beauty’ ribbon box will make the perfect gift for birthdays, Christmas, weddings…it is lavish, stylish, innovative but – most important of all – practical! Don’t miss out – these luxurious hand-finished jewellery boxes are limited edition, and are sure to rapidly become the collectable range everyone is shouting about. You saw it here first! Available to purchase NOW through Joya’s own website as well as other selected retailers.

Keep a look out for future limited edition prints and box designs that will be sure to delight all the women in your life who love and appreciate beautiful jewellery and accessories.

For more information about Joya Jewellery Boxes please visit www.joyaboxes.com

A savvy supplier of snowman sweaters, pudding pullovers and reindeer knits could have seasonal shopping stitched up for connoisseurs of kitsch festive gifts. The natty knitters at Christmas Jumper have been putting in needle overtime ready for their launch on September 9, 2008. Based in Manchester, the kooky company has a full range of classic novelty sweaters ready to fill the nation’s stockings on December 25.

Sported on screen by the likes of Gyles Brandreth, champion of the comedy jumper, a patterned pullover with Santa and snowflakes has traditionally been the bad gift territory of grannies and great aunts. The company is turning the Christmas cliché on its tinselled head, transforming the much-maligned novelty knit into an ironic fashion statement.

Its homespun garments include all the festive favourites: a tasty Christmas pudding, Freddie Frost the snowman, party Santa, plus a selection of chunky granny knits replete with reindeers and snowflakes. All jumpers are a high-quality wool/acrylic blend and come in four sizes, for fans who want to fit out the whole family.

The irony is not lost on the BBC, which has requested two jumpers for its new sitcom ‘Not Going Out’, starring Lee Mac and Tim Vine.

Rafael Fernandez, Christmas Jumper co-founder, says: “Retro Christmas jumpers are having a style revival. Web forums were aflutter in the run up to last Christmas with seasonal shoppers searching – in vain – for novelty knits. Our range of retro sweaters is exclusive to Christmas Jumper - you won’t find them on the high street or through another online store. They’re an essential addition to any festive wardrobe, whether for comedy value at the Christmas party or as genuine gifts for trend setting fashionistas.”

The jumpers cost between £35 and £40, and can be ordered online at www.christmasjumper.co.uk , for delivery within 14 days.

CT Radiators of Brighton, East Sussex, is launching a new type of domestic radiator based around a clever ‘fin’ design not previously available for the home. The ‘Interlinking Lattice Fin Technology’ radiator (patent pending) – part heating implement, part example of stunning contemporary design - will be unveiled at the ‘100% Design’ exhibition, taking place on 18-21 September, 2008, at Earls Court, London.

After analysing the current market designs, Shane Mizra of CT Radiators developed a new fin technology ideal for use in the home, using his proprietary interlinking lattice fin technology.

The radiators come in seven different (as yet unnamed) designs and are aimed at architects, interior designers and private clients. Made in CT Radiators’ workshop in Fishers Gate, Brighton, using advanced welding and robot technology, they can be tailored to exact space and heating requirements and can also be vertical - which was previously inefficient with fin designs. All radiators will be available in mild steel and stainless steel. They are finished with a powder coating, in any colour.

The fin radiator is Shane’s own ‘pet’ project, on which he has been working for the past two years. Trained as a coded welder – the highest qualification in the field – Shane has combined the traditional 100 year old craft with modern 3D technology to create a contemporary product.

Shane Mizra says: “My designs have several advantages over standard fin radiators. For starters, 15% more heat is generated than by the closet fin rival, which is a clear advantage for those who care about their carbon footprint. Furthermore, the radiators operate efficiently in the vertical position and the technology is flexible enough to allow for some fine and funky bespoke designs. Combining the best of form and function, the radiators are an ideal adornment for any modern home.”

The cost of a basic fin design is £2,000.