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After creating fish scale-style bags from old truck tarpaulins for their current Reference collection the Swiss bag label Freitag is now turning plain-coloured strips of tarpaulin into bags for their upcoming spring/summer collection. The handmade ‘R 515 Williams’ will be available in the three colourways ‘Roughly White’, ‘Darn Yellow’ and ‘Almost Red’.

If you’re planning on being in Berlin next week, we recommend you attend the talk by prolific graphic design wonderboy Mario Lombardo. On Thursday at 7pm in the Gestalten Space at the Sophie-Gips-Höfe, he’ll not only be presenting his monograph ‘The Tender Spot’ published by renowned Berlin publishing house Gestalten Verlag, but will also be giving an insight into his work methods.

Markus Lupfer - Photo by James Mooney

Start off by taking in a show by designer Markus Lupfer over a glass of sparkling wine and then go and strut your stuff to the live set by model/it-girl/DJane Daisy Lowe – sounds too good to be true? Think again! Because that's exactly what the second Fashion Net Night is offering, on Saturday, 23 July for the second time at Düsseldorf's Halle 6.

The fact that nature defines our concept of what is beautiful is clearly confirmed by this lamp by Swedish designer Markus Johansson: it goes by the name of ‘Cirrata’ and is based on the shape of an octopus.

All Photos: Jonas Lindström

Another example of design which is inspired by maritime colours and shapes is the 'Fisherman’ lamp. Designed by the Swedish designer group TAF the lamp comes draped in a hand-knotted net and is reminiscent of the large glass buoys used for fishing.

Sea anemones, shells or even ancient diving bells? For her A/W 2011 collection the Hamburg designer Jessica Schröder is diving into the depths of the sea, figuratively speaking at least. Her hand-crafted necklaces and headpieces are inspired by the scientific and, at the same time, decorative illustrations of maritime flora and fauna, drawn by the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel around the year 1900 for the book ‘Art Forms of Nature‘.

We've already recommended the exceptional exhibition by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm in Antwerp's Middelheim Museum a couple of times over the last month or so. His extremely popular and often ironic work, such as his 'One Minute Sculptures', don't have much in common with the traditional concept of art. For all those who can't get enough, we can recommend the art book entitled "Wear Me Out” which has been published by renowned publishing house Hatje Cantz.