Solar powered Seatrac consists of cross-beach decking, a transition platform and an elegant track-fixed Marcel Breuer-inspired chair to make getting into and out of the sea possible for anyone who would normally find this a trial.

Great example of something simple, useful, beautiful - there could surely be one on every beach.

The result of a research project at the Applied Mechanics Laboratory, University of Patras, Greece, now manufactured by Tobea which exists to make this and related designs and services commercially available.

Had an interesting couple of hours at the Haworth Tompkins RCA Dyson Building in Battersea where visitors had (very trusting) free rein to wander the studios and get a bird's eye view of the workshops from glazed galleries – a glimpse into a particular working world. 

Among the exhibitors Michèle Oberdieck showed her glass objects resting on their sides, open-mouthed, cut polished edges, smooth, stretched and pinched-in forms and stand-out use of dazzling yellow, brown and pink: a wake-up combination. Looking forward to the end of year show.

Michèle Oberdieck News

Royal College School of Material Ceramic & Glass

Picking through lighting at the London Design Festival, not at all methodically or comprehensively :

Michael Anastassiades occupied the shopfront at Aram with his own range and the Mobile Chandeliers for Flos; something I like about his work is that it's on the one hand utterly special - sculptural and made exquisitely with fine materials - and also completely useable, perhaps because it reminds you of other things? Upscaled jewellery or gorgeous toys. More about MA and a different way of thinking about the sofa here.

Had an interesting chat with Rubn whose products have a slightly mid-mod feel so not surprising to learn they hand-make from a factory in Sweden founded in the 50s. Added to a half a century of design history they have a super-flexible contemporary production set-up which means their neat families of fittings – practical and well-made, spanning glamorous to everyday – can be endlessly adapted and customised.

EOQ showed their Joseph lamps designed by Michael Young and made from solid blocks of alumunium; more on their site on how this is done but suffice to say it's clever and the result is something that almost looks like paper so delicate are the blades. Anodised or finished in metallic colours the fittings have an intriguing glow, marrying industrial with refined, aptly named after Jospeh Bramagh who patented the first extrusion process in 1797 for making lead pipe.

Lower Marsh behind Waterloo Station is a curious street, undisturbed by twenty-first century development despite its prime location. Fish and chips, second-hand books, massage parlour, tatooing, vintage, primary school, micro-supermarket - something for everyone and now a shopfront for product designer Michael Anastassiades. He seems to be working with the traditions of another era, using fine materials and tapping into a level of craftsmanship that we might have thought no longer existed, nevertheless producing entirely contemporary objects.

Some other people who might have a view on Olympic publicity are Barber Osgerby who designed the torch, seen all over the country, carried by 8000 torch bearers, unbelievably, not getting as much airplay as the cauldron. Anyway they seem fairly busy working all over the place doing a madly wide variety of things, the designer’s dream life.

TipTon chair for Vitra, the torch manufactured in the UK by the Premier Group in Sheffield, Tab lamp for Flos.