Domestique's Zona Tortona was twice the size this year than last, with offerings that ranged from wall vinyl to tableware to plant accessories and lighting. The sheer scope of imaginary realms and landscapes always makes wallcoverings from this company a pleasure to behold. But imagine our surprise when the most mundane of topics, grammar and math, wowed us when presented as single strip wall panels (above). Conjugating auxiliary verbs in all tenses and memorizing the multiplication tables can only be reinforced when presented à la Domestique. More frivolous items were also to be had, like a variety of tableware that included pixelated macarons.

The highly embellished sideboard by French graphic designers Antoine + Manuel was a bit of a showstopper at Il Salone. Made from expanded polyurethane foam, the buffet is a mixture of landscape and science fiction. In complete contrast is Sami Rintala's Luoto, a piece that Danese, for whom it was made, describes as a space element. Although very simple (yet massive), Luoto is all function: covered desk with loads of storage. Nils Holger Moormann had a small stand full of variations on storage and furniture, including a coat rack with an amusing base.

Some recent submissions to Fresh MoCo:

The Humble Telescope (above)

Ring with hidden diamond by John Welden

Marvel murals, canvases, window blinds and prints

table/chairs by Nathan Martell

Arg08 by Doryeth Lorena Jimenez

Stag is a magnificent 10' by 15' tapestry by Grant Heaps, who also works as assistant wardrobe co-ordinator for the National Ballet of Canada. Heaps based his work of 20, 049 fabric scraps on a cross-stitch pattern and stitched the one-inch squares together loosely to make up a delightfully colourful depiction of Canadian flora and fauna. And on the brick wall of the installation space for Radiant Dark's Elegant Corruptions, Stag was impossible to miss. Such was also the case of Bev Hisey's Dirty Dishes, a collection of tufted rugs based on the contents of Petri dishes. The patterns of this series of rugs are based on a variety of viruses and bacteria that are not usually considered to be pleasing in any way. Some of the ills portayed included influenza, SARS, anthrax, botulism and HIV.

+ madedesign.ca

+ Staffan Holm and Dan Sunaga are the designers of the Newton coffee table, which uses two rings of pressure-molded wood as a base. The edges of the rings are forced towards the centre, creating curves that became the table's signature.

+ Joy de Vivre has come up with a new concept for modular latticework suitable for urban dwelling. Cellule is made from UV stabilized polypropylene and can be used indoors and out. A system of snap legs and pegs allow the lattice wall to expand or be moved. The modules can be attached to most surfaces with ease and there is a tidy cap to hide all hardware. The curved surfaces allow climbing plants to weave in and out quite nicely.

+ The IScreen from Li-Rong Liao is a modular screen composed of laser cut units of plywood and Masonite. This pattern is made up of the letters in LISA, but eventually patterns will be customized from any characters.

Lee Borthwick's mirrored wood installation at IMM Cologne was a spectacular tapestry of over eight hundred pieces of dead wood. One side of the installation showed the natural wood and the other presented a much shinier surface: laser cut mirrors that had been traced to fit the wood. The Multiplay triangular carpet modules by Tamer Nakisci is an unexpected variation on the theme of carpet tiles, especially with the play on colour. Bondage seating from Machalke showed a playfulness that combined with comfort, and EllipsDesign had a variety of pieces from their new collection.

+ leeborthwick.co.uk
+ imm-cologne.com