Do you want to work for Philippe Stark? BBC Two has teamed up with celebrated French design guru Philippe Starck to help find a new generation of British design talent. Ten aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century will be given the unique opportunity to learn and work alongside Starck and his team over a period of several months.

With a working title of ‘Philippe Starck’s School of Design’, the tv show will involve Starck inviting would-be designers to bid for one of 10 places on a design course to be held in Paris. At the end of the course at least one student will be rewarded with a six month placement at Starck’s design agency in the French capital.

Read more about Philippe Starck’s School of Design.

Cool tile work. You’ve got to love the creative use of mosaic tiles in the restrooms of Tranan Restaurant, designed by Karl Grandin. 300,000 mosaic tiles make up the artwork, featuring portraits of figures such as Tom Waits, Biggie, and Peter Tosh. Artists whose music Grandin associated with late nights at Tranan.

See more work by Karl Grandin.

Don’t be S.A.D, be happy! Graphic designer Keith Hancox has created some clever t-shirts for a friend who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder. The first S.A.D T-Shirt is over printed with black heat sensitive ink which turns transparent at 32ºc. So when the sun comes out, and the heat rises, the black clouds on the t-shirt fade away and the sun shines! The second S.A.D T-Shirt is screen-printed with the statement, “The Sun is nature’s Prozac”, in uv sensitive ink which only appears under sunlight. Clever stuff!

See more work by Keith Hancox.

Incredible street art animation! You’ve got to watch ‘Muto’ an “ambiguous animation painted on public walls” by Blu. Then go and watch all his other video animations. If you like his style, you can always go and pick up some signed Blu prints at Pictures On Walls

See more work by Blu.

Do you remember 80’s pop legends, Thompson Twins? I’m not quite old enough to have a good memory of the 80’s music scene, but I do know that the Thompson Twins were a big part of it. So what has happened to the band members since then? Well, If you’re Alannah Currie, one third of the synth-heavy pop group, you become an “armchair destructivist”. Part artist, part upholsterer, Currie combines upholstery and taxidermy under the moniker Miss Pokeno to create surreal furniture artworks. Who would’ve thought that a red velvet armchair combined with two entwined foxes (Currie is a vegetarian and the animals in her work are either roadkill or died naturally) would produce such a beautiful but disturbing place to sit and read the newspaper?

See A Collection of Chairs to honor the Godless by Miss Pokeno from the 8 May 2008 - 8 June 2008 at The Ragged School, 47 Union Street London, SE1 1SG

Where next on the map? I love to travel, and maps hold a special allure for me. They present suggestions and possibilities of new experiences to be had. Which is why I quite like Future Maps by Digitile. The company has created a modern redesign of the Cylindrical Equal Area Projection and made it available for people to cover their walls with on a massive scale via wallpaper or tiles. It’s an opportunity to cover your walls in something more interesting and educational than a tin of white paint

Tables, algorithms, trees and elephants legs. I’m completely taken with the organic branch like legs of the Arborism Table by Eisuke Tachikawa of Nosigner. Although they remind me of the long spindley legs of the surrealist elephants that Dali often featured in his paintings, the design was actually born out of the calculations of a fractal algorithm.

See more work by Nosigner.

Create your own Persian rug! Made from a recyclable mixture of synthetic and natural rubber, this modular flooring design from Katrin Sonnleitner allows you to create your own persian style rug from jigsaw shaped pieces. Everytime you get bored of the pattern, just break it all up and start all over again.

See more work by Katrin Sonnleitner.

Ashamed of your cheap corporate style office chair? Day in, day out, you’re sat in that horrid aesthetically unpleasing office chair. Isn’t it time you gave it a new lease of life? Thanks to the designs of Chenhui Su, with a quick cover you can transform your everyday seating into a Victorian style chair, or perhaps an Eames Lounge Chair or Eero Saarinen Tulip Chair.

Visit the website of Chenhui Su.

Did you know that on average, two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987? With Starbucks attacking on all fronts, it’s refreshing to see something as uniquely glorious as London Tea shop Teasmith fighting back against the growing coffee mono-culture.

Owner John Kennedy, a self-confessed ‘tea geek’, runs the contemporary teahouse offering customers the world’s best teas amidst a beautifully designed interior created by Jonathan Clark Architects. Accompanied by Miss Random Fashion Coolness, I visited the teahouse this weekend, and instantly fell in love with the place. As if the beautiful hanging bare bulbs of the interior design weren’t enough to turn me on, the teas, biscuits and chocolates (by master Chocolatie William Curley, no less) certainly finished the job. Although, the absolute jewel in the crown is reserved for the owner, John Kennedy. Never have I experienced such warmth and enthusiasm from the owner of any establishment. Even though we were just another couple of customers off the street for all he knew, he took the time to educate us in the culture of tea and the skills involved in making the perfect cuppa. Christ knows how he gets anything done if he’s as attentive to every customer as he was to us this weekend.

I’ve completely forgotten what teas we tried, as I was so engrossed in Kennedy’s tales of the tea world, but guided recommendation using his wealth of knowledge, resulted in experiencing some of the finest tea I’d ever tasted. However, I can definitely recommend accompanying your tea with the chocolate dipped fruit, and salty Miso flavoured biscuits (I know, right? Salty biscuits? Sounds so wrong, but incredibly it works so right!)

If you live in the capital, or you’re just passing through, make sure you take a pit-stop at Teasmith. Saturday is a great day to go, when the nearby Spitalfields market is closed, and it’s quiet. I can’t recommend it enough. Go and experience the best the world has to offer in tea, guided by one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Teasmith is located at 6 Lamb Street, London.