German born designer and new name to watch Katrin Greiling studied her trade in Sweden. But while such solid product-design provenance would give her instant kudos in many circles, what really makes Greiling stand out from the crowd is that she chose to spend the first three years of her career working in the middle East. As a young female, liberal and curious working from Dubai she has developed rich cultural insights that not only inform her work but also give her all manner of unusual stories to tell.

Greiling's award winning Bidoun collection of seating, for example, is inspired by the nomadic but comfortable lifestyle of the Bedouin tribes whom she encountered in the desert. Greiling is also no stranger to the annual camel beauty contests that happen in the UAE every January.

Now back in snowy Stockholm, however, Greiling has established her own independent design studio where she is concentrating on bringing her new perspectives to interior design from a more global platform. One of her first tasks has been the Design Bar & VIP Lounge for the Stockholm Furniture Fair. Playing with perceptions of public and private space the seating she devised allowed some much appreciated privacy for weary customers, while a pop up pineapple in the centre served fresh juices.

Greiling's website is well worth a visit, featuring T-shirt and accessory designs to buy as well as other examples of her furniture. There is also a link there to her photography, as this new kid on the block is as multitalented as she is multicultural.

Rich Brilliant Willing is New York's best representative a new generation of American contemporary industrial design. The trio, which consists of Theo Richardson, Charles Brill, and Alex Williams (see what they did with the name there?) have managed to get several products into industrial production with prestigious manufacturers such as  Areaware,  SCP, Artecnica and  Roll & Hill in just a couple of years since they formed. Coming up in March, too, will be a Rich Brilliant Willing dedicated show at Chicago's discerning design gallery, Volume.

Their success can be put down to sheer determination, attitude and undisputable talent. And although any signature style is hard to put a finger on as yet, Rich Brilliant Willing's products are consistently well considered, and often have a charmingly cobbled together feel - for example their Branch lamps, the Appalacian dining chairs, and their glass lights for Artechnica all very clearly originate from the same studio - and where the three will regularly sit with material samples catalogues, calling in bits and pieces for inspiration and prototyping.

Just a couple years since first setting up, RBW have recently been charged with the design of the Armory Show VIP lounge with Ligne Roset. "It's going to be an amazing installation with snow fence and over 30 different textured & colored fabrics as upholstery," says Richardson. "We also have a new line of pendant lamp shades to be released in spring, and are in the midst of prototyping a new chair."

Partners in work and life, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay are one of the design world's most delectable duos right now - winning awards left, right and centre, and wowing with their tireless ability to innovate. Although the pair only graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2006 they have already established a significant back catalogue of work for manufacturers such as Established & Sons, Cappellini and Arco, and a reputation for never revisiting the same idea twice.

One of their most recent bests has been the Coiling Collection. Developed as an exploration into design processes, the Coiling Collection consists of pieces of furniture made from felt which has been coiled and then saturated with silicon on one side. The silicon gives the felt structure and longevity, but the real appeal is in the weird and tactile contrast between the textile and the plastic - together they form a new composite material.

In art as in life - the Coiling Collection could be a nice metaphor for Raw Edges' studio, as with Yael and Shay's different skills and approaches, together they are able to produce work that is more diverse and experimental. Where Yael has a talent for tranforming two-dimensional sheet materials into three dimensional functional sculptures, Shay is more interested in the mechanics of things. Together, they say, their goal is to create objects that have never been seen before. They've certainly achieved it here.