Year after year, the furniture fairs come and go and the buzz around star designers – like Tom Dixon, Marcel Wanders, and Jaime Hayon – draw all the media in for a deep, long taste. While we love the breadth of work such big names generate, at Voice of Color we are also committed to watching those who quietly slip under the radar and go about their worklife producing crafty and sophisticated froms. We pay tribute to five of them here, as ones to watch:

REDDISH DESIGN STUDIO
Founded in 2002, the creative duo behind Reddish Design Studio have been building a slow and steady roster of thought-provoking products and impressive awards. Focusing on the "clear and intriguing", Naama Steinbock and Idan Freidman are really just finding their niche.

And what a niche it's becoming. With so many fantastic designs to mention – our faves include the collapsing On/Off lamp, the digitally tattooed wooden Yazuka table, and the brand new Dov aluminum table that began as a block of polystyrene pebbles – Steinbock and Freidman are painting the town, well, Reddish.

5,5 DESIGNERS
With a measurable amount of success since opening in 2003 (namely five awards, much press, and numerous exhibitions), the CinqCinq team is made up of four designers each of whom have yet to turn 30.

Most of the team's work can aptly be described as "simplistic yet clever", like the CurrenKey usb drives for LaCie, or the Apparat glasses for Baccarat. Some works are more humorous, like The Most Honest Chocoalate Tablet for Chocolate Factory, or the The Sponge House for Scotch-Brite that possibly makes cleaning up messes a fun activity for children! We anticipate many great products from this quattro in the near future.

FREDRIK FARG
Quite new on the design scene, Fredrik Farg was attending the Stockholm Furniture Fair with his classmates at the HDK School of Design & Crafts (Sweden) as recently as 2007. By February 2009, Fredrik had placement in six unique exhibitions at the fair, not including his own booth.

While he has already worked on a number of furniture and lighting products, Fredrik's recent Recover Chairs have garnered him the most notable attention from media, bloggers, and fellow designers alike. Inspired by the seeming timelessness of men's classic suiting and a desire to bring "slow fashion" into furniture design, the young designer baked poly felt to chair frames in order provide back support while maintaining a soft tactile finish. The chairs are now slated to be developed by Materia.

NICOLA FROM BERN
Nicola Enrico Staubli is driven by a desire to create flexibility for the evolving consumer lifestyle. A 2004 graduate of SFIT in Zurich, Nicola is slowly building a name for himself with consistently unique and thoughtful products. He first caught our eye with his Coat Hanger & Hook combo, which brilliantly can be hung from a number of angles to yield either hanger or hook. No matter which way the piece is displayed, it always yields the marriage of art & function.

After considering the needs of growing on-line retailers, Nicola recently unveiled a new coat hook of powdercoated spring steel which was designed to ship conveniently (it flat packs as a single piece of metal which is then looped and screwed into place). The result is a beautiful and sturdy (yet lightweight) hook designed to bear the load of even the "healthiest" winter coats.

Nicola's talent for translating changing demands into sophisticated goods has us forecasting a bright, bright future for Nicola From Bern.

RYAN DART
We first learned of newbie Ryan Dart when we discovered his Jersey bench (designed in 2007) that, while indeed is strictly a bench, does somehow bear a cow-likeness. But it wasn't until his Quarry table of 2009 that we truly sat up and paid attention. Right side up, the interlocking pieces of wood laminate seem like some sort of ancient caterpillar skelton or primitive animal rib-cage. Right side down, it seems from the antithesis of worlds – more like a three-dimensional, computer generated city grid.

What resonates most about Ryan's designs is this ability to create marketable pieces which simultaneously draw your mind into another dimension. As we eagerly await new designs from Ryan, we hope he keeps it up.

DANIEL HEDNER, IMAGINARY OFFICE
With his two brothers in tow, Daniel Hedner founded Imaginary Office in 2008, with a goal of using "simple materials in unexpected combinations". That philosophy certainly rings true with their Pleats-Pleats sofa, which is made up of weaving polyurethane foam around a powdercoated steel framework. Similarly, the Mini Lamp is minimal, but certainly not mini in size. A huge funnel shaped shade sits atop springy, tripod legs, towering over most who would try to stand under it.

No matter which you may prefer, each of these designers possess the ability to consider product design from an entirely new set of perspectives, where form and material know no boundaries.