Core77

The annual New York Toy Fair, located at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, drew over 20,000 attendees this year. Visitors took the isles to check out over 100,000 products, and Core77 was there to bring the hottest ones right to your desktop.

The Cologne International Design Festival consists of two main (unfortunately competing rather than collaborating) events: The IMM Furniture Show and the Passagen - a show program with a great number of exhibitions in the main fair as well as galleries, show rooms, bars and shops across the city.

More subdued than previous years in regard to presentation spectacle, the 2009 North American International Auto Show focused on product - especially high efficiency and electric vehicles. This was the year everyone got serious about "eco" being more than just a nice idea, with almost every major manufacturer introducing a hybrid or EV... at least in concept form.

The Museum of Arts and Design inaugurated its new home at Columbus Circle with Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, a special thematic exhibition featuring 51 contemporary artists from 17 countries who transform discarded, commonplace, or valueless objects into extraordinary works of art.

Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum (German: Museum of Letters) organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum preserves an immense collection of historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond. Enjoy a visit yourself (by appointment only) or enjoy our sneak preview right now.

The 15th edition of the EUROMOLD fair takes place in Frankfurt (3-6 Dec.) covering the product development process from the first idea to final finishing. This year we take a closer look at new materials and technologies, research projects, and the works of upcoming designers.

Two unofficially competing events make up Tokyo's Design Week, 'Tokyo Designer's Week' anchored by the 100% Design show and 'Designtide Tokyo' (September 30 - November 3rd). In addition, a number of satellite shows and parties take place at various shop and gallery spaces during the week.

DESIGNERSOPEN 2008 is one of the biggest design events in the east of Germany. During three days (24-26 Oct.) in Leipzig, we captured the power of a young design generation during a creative fight club, design exhibitions, historical art fair, and downtown specials.

From the 16th - 22nd of October, the fourth annual Design Philadelphia covered the city of brotherly love with exhibitions, gallery openings, lectures, contests, and work from many talented local designers.

FreeDesigndom 2008 is the first edition of a new annual design and fashion event in the Netherlands. The event started September 10 with a four weeks program festivals, exhibitions and symposiums. We faced the Dutch rain to check out some of the ongoing events including Experimenta Design, Hacking IKEA, Sustainable Design Collective and Red Light Fashion in the heart of Amsterdam.

Now in its sixth year, The London Design Festival offers a great array of creative events and attracts everyone from consumers to professionals to students and all those with a keen interest in design. A great number of exhibitions and installations are taking place across London, involving a diverse range of talents, from established innovators to rising stars.

Since 1995 around 300 participants from all over the world live and work for one week with renowned designers, architects and artists at the Domaine de Boisbuchet. Organized by the Vitra Design Museum the courses of 25 designer run during the summer for three month in an extensive park-like estate in the South of France.

"ManufRactured" is the first exhibition of its kind: a collection of art and design objects created from re-purposed manufactured goods, from zippers and spools of thread to detergent bottles and polystyrene packaging. On display at the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft in Oregon until January 9, 2009. Photographed by Kirill Shelayev (hikirill[at]gmail[dot]com).

"Bicycle" is the title of a 100-day event (Jun.22 - Oct.5) full of activities and lectures anchored by a central exhibition at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. The exhibition provides a great overview on the variety of two-wheelers designed for sports, transport, showing off... everything! Some 18 million bicycles in the Netherlands make it worth checking out this gallery of Dutch design on wheels.

From the 14th - 20th of July, the greatest display of aircraft on the planet gathered in Hampshire, UK, for an airborne extravaganza.

Frankfurt's new furniture and gift fair took place from July 4-8 in the city's Messe Convention Center.

"Ceramics and Sound" brings together the works of artists and designers who have been working at the European Ceramic Workcenter (.ekwc). The exhibition is on show at the Neues Kunstforum in Cologne (July 12 - August 9) and showcases sound installations, ceramic sculptures, experiments and prototypes.

From June 26-28, the likes of Richard Hutten, Michael Young and Patrick Jouin joined creative directors Tobias Wong and Aric Chen in the Shanghai Exhibition Center to showcase design in one of the fastest developing parts of the world.

They said: "Oh my God, Harley-Davidson is coming to town!" We decided to see for ourselves at the Hamburg Harley Days (June 20-22) with some 75,000 (custom) motorbikes and a talk with Bill Davidson about the rock and roll of design.

"The Sky Is Not The Limit" at the Berlin Design Festival. The five day event (May 21-25) by DMY Berlin wants to show us that anything is possible. From a city where design is always and everywhere we highlighted the Swiss Design Prize and central Arena exhibitions.