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He made design history with his visionary creations. Verner Panton revolutionised the way the Sixties looked at design, especially with his interiors. The man‘s modest and impassioned manner was in considerable contrast to the image of the enfant terrible which the international design scene liked to associate with him. Today, fifty years later, his designs are among the most popular icons of the 20th century. What is remarkable above all is that his conceptual and formal ideas are only now being fully adopted in architectural and design trends, and are being used as the basis for further development – made possible by computer-aided design and production processes. Verner Panton was ahead of his time.

The latest trend book edition for the imm cologne features the Interior Trends for 2009. The overwhelming response received in previous years demonstrates that this annual book provides a detailed reference work not only for exhibitors, visitirs and journalists but also for architects and designers.

This year´s board consisted of five members:
- Eero Koivisto | Claesson Koivisto Rune, Stockholm/Sweden
- Arik Levy | L design, Paris/France
- Stephen Burks | Readymade Projects, New York/USA
- Giulio Ridolfo | designer, textile expert, Udine/Italy
- Markus Fairs | editor-in-chief dezeen.com, London/GB

DESIGNSPOTTER was invited to the exclusive press preview, which was taking place in Barcelona on September 4th.

German architects Christian Dieckmann and Robert Wetzel want to reawake the awareness for the significance of the "Colonius", Cologne´s TV tower, which is distinctive for the cityscape of the city.

During the PLAN08, the panel for architecture in Cologne/Germany, taking place from 19 - 26 Sept, they tranformed the TV tower by illumination and caused a lot of attraction.

Whether in the USA, Britain, or Belgium, Finland, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, or China: everywhere, cities are shrinking.

The dramatic development in eastern Germany since 1989, which has led to more than a million empty apartments and to the abandoning of countless industrial parks and social and cultural facilities, has proven to be no exception, but a general pattern of our civilization.

Shrunken cities contradict the image, familiar since the Industrial Revolution, of the "boomtown", a big city characterized by constant economic and demographic growth. Shrunken cities spur a reconsideration not only of traditional ideas of the European city, but also of the future development of urban worlds.

Jewelry is commonly perceived as a beautiful piece of wearable art: stand-alone, sculptural, and aloof. However, in order to understand contemporary jewelry design, we need to view the work as we would the product of any design field: as conceptual projects, as material studies, as social commentaries, and as connections to the past.

The various creations by international designers presented in this book give us an outline on current trends and developments in the field of jewelry. Their work is presented as a snapshot of individual practices, a broad sampling of innovative creations and forward-looking designers. What unites them are everyday considerations on context and production.