Mosaics have been enjoying a renaissance for the past twenty years at least. The beginning of the digital age also marked the start of the triumphal march of the mosaic stone, the smallest element in a complex picture.

During the recent Cologne Orgatec, Claudia Beckmann and Thomas Wagner talked with Antonio Citterio about the office of tomorrow, the relevance of research for the design process, and design's social responsibility.

With white, gold, blue and black, shiny aluminium reflectors they create a variety of light effects. KAP is the name of the new built-in spots from Flos Architectural.

On closer inspection more things in this world than you would initially imagine prove to be translucent - the human skin, plant leaves, paper and even wax. Many creative disciplines have long since been taking advantage of the qualities of transparent materials and make gainful use of the possibilities of specific light modulation, especially in an architectural context.

Strong and light: Carbon is the high-flyer. In product design too and even in times when sustainability should play an ever greater role, the industrial material shows its sensational potential.

All the things you can make from industrial cardboard - the material keeps finding new applications in architecture and design.

Eco-management systems, eco-labels, sustainability certificates – the need for information on ecological aspects of production is growing by the day. Some companies, such as Italian manufacturer Arper, have already pinned proof of the eco-friendliness of their products to their masts.

The term wire mesh initially sounds technical and slightly reserved. However, the possible appearances hiding behind this material are very promising, both in mechanical and aesthetic terms. A picture gallery with selected pieces conveys an idea of the various properties wire mesh can have and how wide its range of possible uses is.

It's all about feelings. That's how great cinema works. Even when the film is about a sink fixture which plays the protagonist in "Karbon Faucet".

They leave everything else in a creative dead-end. CuldeSac, a 17-strong design team from Valencia, works on various interdisciplinary projects, devising both individual products and complete design concepts at once. And there will be even greater demand for this in the future. We visited CuldeSac in their old and new studio.

The winter issue of Stylepark Magazine for Product Culture addresses the current financial and economic crisis and sheds light on its effects on the design industry. It will be available from December 15 from selected newsagents and as a direct subscription.

Down through the years, James Bond has had to endure a lot, has traveled round the world countless times, loved countless women, and overcome at least just as many adversaries. In the course of time, not only have his weapons become more effective, his escape vehicles faster, and his enemies trickier, but Bond himself has morphed. Yet throughout the feel for good design has remained constant.

Once upon a time they wore suits, white or striped shirts, and bow ties. Today architects, and not just them prefer black. Why? You don't know? A small but amusing book offers insights into how the champions of the discipline turn out - even if they avoid black.

Ben van Berkel's "MyChair" has the wherewithal to become a classic, which makes spatial relationships its own.

For those who want to get an idea of the New York art scene of the 1960s or independent American cinema, the films of Jonas Mekas are a must. Andy Warhol, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and George Maciunas, he filmed all of them, and in so doing always also told his own story with the camera. For those who have seen his movies, music videos are simply clean, slow and boring. Simply mainstream.

With 'Bodysign', Marc-Jens Biegel has been creating jewellery designs for famous international product designers for the past six years. There have been ten collections so far, all based on an ultra simple yet extremely clever, carefully considered concept.

Last weekend saw the 11th International Architecture Biennial in Venice draw to a close. "Out There: Architecture Beyond Building" was the motto, which tempted people to leave the architecture outside in the cold. To show just how urban thought, the architectural strategies and the design approaches were presented we offer you a few impressions from the country pavilions, the Giardini, and the thematic exhibition in the Arsenale.

The first monograph by Jürgen Mayer H. was published in the autumn. The cover probably already announced a new decorative style - natural numerals in the print colours CMYK reproduced over and over again, which when decoded from a distance turns out to be the Mensa Moltke student dining hall, the work, which made him famous. On the inside of the book, the game of figures and patterns goes on, on a page which separates practice from theory.

Moleskine in the box: The little book is the classic among notebooks, even though everything legendary about it is a marketing ploy. As part of the exhibition "Detour", which has been touring the world for years, 38 specimens were presented at the Museum der Dinge in Berlin - designed by artists, designers and writers.

The designers Markus Jehs and Jürgen Laub have been working together under the name Jehs+Laub for over 14 years now. We met them at Orgatec in Cologne, and spoke to them about their relationship with manufacturers, the quality of entrances, trends, sustainability, and the strengths and weaknesses of the other.

The Kunstbar has opened under Cologne's remodelled Domplatte, which a different artist redesigns every year. Belgian Arne Quinze is the first.

Bamboo has long since not just been an ingredient in Asian cooking; there are now laptops, bicycle frames and furniture made of the "wonder grass". It is one of the fasting growing renewable raw materials in the world and is currently the most popular, most loved ecological material.

It's about a presentation with our own interests at heart. At Designers' Saturday in Langenthal Stylepark presented itself with an installation comprising 800 boxes. Not that that was everything though.

He became famous for his VW ad, the "Bär im Mann" [the bear in man] and the spot "Sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-cola. Alles ist in Afri-Cola" [Sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-cola. Afri-Cola has it all]. Now the University of Art Braunschweig presents Charles Wilp "the artronaut" in addition to Charles Wilp, the advertising artist.

DS Awards presented for the first time at the Designers' Saturday in Langenthal

The 12th Designers' Saturday in Langenthal - Suddenly you enjoy being in the factory on Saturday. But only because on Designers' Saturday tables, chairs, wallpaper, floor coverings, fittings, carpets, luminaires and much else besides enters the local design industry's workshops. The result: a festival for the design community, which presents the things embedded in the culture of how they are made.

What do you get when you combine a thousand pieces of miniature furniture from different epochs in a single installation? Carolina Kecskemethy tried it out in the "Museum der Dinge" in Berlin.

The basic element is simpler than a clothes peg: A piece of plastic the size of a finger which at first glance looks useless and yet can effect true miracles. Together with Foscarini, Milan-based designer Giulio Iacchetti has created a modular ceiling luminaire consisting purely of thermoplastic components.

Flowers and trees grow - that you cannot deny, but chairs? The "Venus Chair" by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka is made of tiny crystals which form on a support structure. Design and nature could not be closer.

What do the hundred thousand designers do who have studied or not, who are not favored by large corporations and have to fight their way through the jungle of commerce alone? Well. You'll find some of them at an alternative design fair such as Designers' Open in Leipzig.

In the past lots of things were much easier. Perhaps being Art Director as well. In an interview with Stylepark Rodolfo Dordoni, chief designer at Minotti, spoke about what it means to be in charge of the artistic side of a major company.

What's important when it comes to so-called charity design, apart from well-intentioned social commitment, is seductive marketing. In recent years, Danish manufacturer Vipp has stood out from the rest, in relation to this type of creative event. In no time at all, Vipp has evolved from a small professional design company to an internationally successful lifestyle brand, with their incredibly simple but functional pedal bins.

No, not many surprises are on offer at Orgatec 2008 in Cologne but naturally this depends on your point of view. In any event, on some stands, with their ergonomically tested recliners, it felt more like we had been transported into a modern torture chamber than a comfortable, open-plan working environment. Despite this, there are some happy exceptions.

"Net 'n' Nest" is the name of Vitra's office concept - which loosely means being linked in a relaxed way. No other manufacturer at Orgatec displayed such a wide range of models for communicative working in the office. In Cologne Claudia Beckmann and Thomas Wagner spoke to Hanns-Peter Cohn, CEO of Vitra, about the idea of collage, the significance of the digital office, globalization and CO2 reduction.

Every other year the small town of Langenthal near Bern becomes a Mecca for the international design scene. On November 8 and 9 it is time for Designers' Saturday 2008 to open its doors again.