As part of Ventura Lambrate, the postgraduate Scuola Politecnica di Design SPD presented Call to Action! – great projects and an excellent example of exhibition display.

Ljubljana: You have until March 27 to vote for your favourite bike project in the Trimo Urban Crash competition for students to design a bike base for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. With 220 entries from 37 countries, the expert jury selected 31 shortlisted designs that are up for public vote. The public vote makes up 20%, the jury 80%. You can vote for up to three designs.

Cape Town: We are looking forward to this year’s line up at the Design Indaba Conference that runs over three days from 27 February to March 01 2013. ARTS THREAD brings you some speaker highlights.

A new title from gestalten, Brand Spaces explores the latest trends in communicating brand concepts through retail design. A must for all students and practitioners of both interior architecture and design, as well as advertising, graphic design and all forms of design marketing and promotion.

Sunday is the final day of OBJECT Rotterdam, be sure not to miss Inside the White Whale, an installation by Vacant NL, the name given to a special two year Master’s programme at the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam.

Material Matters: New Materials in Design from black dog publishing is an excellent up-to-date review of the materials available to today’s designer. Perfect for both the experienced and student designer, the range of materials referenced is divided by chemical composition – Metals, Glasses, Ceramics, Polymers, Composites and Material Futures.

ARTS THREAD takes a look at the highlights from costume and set design at this year’s Prime Cuts motion arts festival based at Truman Brewery, London.

ARTS THREAD looks at the talent on offer from Spatial Design at New Designers this weekend.

Christopher Hall, a graduate of Ravensbourne, took a new look at retirement homes. ‘To stop elderly being forced to move away from their family, an ecological tower constructed from shipping crates has been designed to allow for low cost housing units to be placed on abandoned or unused sites in cities. The building incorporates underground charging and parking for electric cars to create a completely ecological and sustainable design.’

Frankfurt recently celebrated Luminale 2012; light projects set around the city that complemented the Light + Building trade show. ARTS THREAD takes a look at some of the highlights. Be sure to view the below videos for full effect!

ARTS THREAD were welcomed by an orchestra of whirrs, clunks and bangs as we entered the Kinetica Artfair in the Ambika P3 Gallery, London.