Stockholm Design Week starts Monday February 06, with its key exhibition Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair opening Tuesday 07 till Saturday 11 February. ARTS THREAD previews the highlights.

Colleen Ellington/ Lucy Alice Porter/ Sophie Adamson

Interiors UK 2012 showcased the work of this year’s New Design Britain Awards finalists with the winners in each design category being announced on the 23rd of January. Each winner in the four categories (furniture, furnishing accessories, surfaces and fabrics) were awarded a placement within the industry.

Camilla Barnard

ARTS THREAD and Designersblock teamed up once again to bring you some of the best and brightest emerging design talents, this time at Interiors UK, Birmingham. From our Call for Entries, we selected six unique creatives from the realms of illustration, ceramics, product design and textiles.

Urbanisation, Sarahjane Harrison; 3D projects, Karin Soderquist

ARTS THREAD visits Designersblock’s Design Village this morning, taking in the 7 winning designers of the DESIGNERSBLOCK/ARTS THREAD Call for Entry – shown above Sarahjane Harrison and Karin Soderquist. Also look out for Catherine Frere-Smith, Katy Jennings, David Ryan Robinson, Camilla Barnard and Holly Wilson. Design Village also includes all manner of marvellous delights, including [...]

Rosemary Anrude/ Daniel Schofield/ Stuart Melrose

Following our successful collaboration at the Farmiloe Building during the London Design Festival, ARTS THREAD are once again teaming up with Designersblock to bring you the best emerging graduate and student design work. This time we’re heading up north to Birmingham where we will be taking part in the UK’s interiors trade exhibition Interiors UK – and we’d like you to join us! Visit our Designersblock competition page for further details on how you could be exhibiting your work in front of Britain’s top retailers and buyers.

In the meantime, we preview a selction of talents on show with Designersblock in January in Birmingham.

Bless you, Rémi Bouhaniche, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

Paris’s Granville Gallery has commissioned a selection of both well-established and emerging names to create unique pieces that rethink the theme of the coffret aux secrets – the secret box that has always played a role historically and internationally in our lifestyle.

Gravity Stool, Jolan van der Weil / Gousset, Raphaëlle Bonamy

A fresh crop of designers will be unveiling their unusual creations as part of the [D3] Contest exhibition at the imm Cologne + LivingInteriors trade fair 2012. The [D3] Contest, which is open to students and graduates who specialise in furniture, lighting, textiles and accessories, gives young designers the fantastic opportunity to present their ideas to an international audience. Each year the competition receives hundreds of applications, with 2011′s contest receiving a record number of 862. ARTS THREAD takes a look at what to expect this January.

Fabien Cappello, 'Christmas Tree Project'/ Nina Tolstrup, 'Paletable'/ Stuart Haygarth, 'Tail Light'

Five of Europe’s leading designers come together for Grandmateria II at the Gallery Libby Sellers, London. Inspired by the mythological tale of the Philosopher’s stone, the five designers have set out to ‘turn lead into gold’ by taking simple, ordinary materials and transforming them into extraordinary design items.

Shana Teugels,'Crowned Curiosities'

The final results of Design Platform Limburg’s annual Toegepast program went on display today at the Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium. The five promising designers who took part were given the unique opportunity to be professionally coached by fashion duo Ti + Hann who were on hand to enable their creativity and help them realise a brand new piece of work.

Jair Straschnow and Wouter Nieuwendijk, 'Another Picnic Table'

The iconic picnic table bench has been re-designed by Jair Straschnow and Wouter Nieuwendijk and will be presented in two separate locations throughout Dutch Design Week, offering event goers a comfortable and stylish place to rest between exhibitions.