Ten designers from Konstfack will show projects around the theme of Negative Space at New York’s ICFF from 18-21 May 2013. Described as ‘a series of individual explorations of negative space, culminating in an intriguing interplay between form, memory, movement, light and time’, ARTS THREAD takes a preview.

The Royal Academy of Art The Hague brought a performance element to Ventura Lambrate in Milan with its Live Factory Make My Day – a celebration of work-in-progress from students and recent graduates. ARTS THREAD went along to see.

The School of Art and Design, Kassel in Germany came to Milan with a second edition of their collection of product and furniture design created by recent graduates of the school.

Silesian Design Cluster bring us design from a region that now can export more than the coal it was so famous for, with a network of designers, architects, universities and research centres. Step forward into Milan – La Dolce Silesia.

This April is the sixth time Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) has shown in Milan and this edition promised to be full of the unexpected with live performances showing ‘raw, untreated materials like plaster and textile processed in front of the visitors in a series of extraordinary projects that push the boundaries of manufacturability, defy gravity and redefine the notion of design.’ Read on!

Aalto University is at Ventura Lambrate this April with an exhibition entitled Norther, with 26 stimulating student projects showcasing the best of furniture, ceramics and glass, industrial design, textiles and fashion from Finland.

It’s the fourth year that Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (AAAD), Prague comes to Milan. This time the students and graduates were chosen by the art and design curator Tereza Bruthansová and AAAD’s Porcelain and Ceramics Studio head, Maxim Velčovský.

HKU, Utrecht School of the Arts comes to Milan with work from its multi-disciplinary HKU Design course for established designers who are forging new connections and exploring new applications. We can’t wait to see the works in person!

For this year’s Milan, the School of Industrial Design at Lund University explore sustainability in an exhibition entitled From Linear to Cyclic that questions whether we can find good concepts that can help in the transition from today’s relentless drive for greater productivity to a cyclic way of existing on this planet?

For Milan Design Week Designersblock & Arts Thread will be part of the The Magazzini – a creative hub in Tortona, running April 09-13 featuring Heineken, PechaKucha, Cool Hunting, Joshua Davis, Vectorfunk, Matt W Moore and Tuttobene.

The Designersblock & Arts Thread section will feature work from new talents curated from Arts Thread’s creative portfolios. In advance of the show, we take a look at the first of the designers showing – Fay de Winter, a 2012 MA graduate from UCA Farnham in Contemporary Crafts.