No other design show on earth can quite encompass the beauty and brilliance of the Internationale Salone del Mobile in Milan, otherwise known as Milan Design Week. Each and every year, thousands upon thousands of visitors make the pilgrimage to the fair grounds on the outskirts of the city to see, touch, and digest the multitude of new offerings the world's most renouned designers have on exhibit. While hundreds made our designer hearts leap, we've short listed 12 of the most notable products the show had to offer.

ROSSANA ORLANDI: Playful wire design is defintitely trending these days, with great examples across all product types - from side tables to sideboards, lighting to little accessories. The Mangue table stood apart from the pack, with a wire base resembling a mess of tangled ivy vines supporting a mirrored glas top. The accompanying Mangue candlestand make it seem as if the vines have crawled through the table top.

NEWFORM: Every year it seems the faucet & bath brands offer a little more art and a little more innovation than the year before. Gone are the days when a faucet was just a faucet, or a shower head was merely a vehicle for transferring water from pipe to person. The Morpho collection at Newform had design tongues wagging for it's brilliant spiralling silhouette. Set against a minimal backdrop, a Morpho piece dresses up a bathroom all by itself.

MOOOI: Leave it to uber-imaginative mind of someone like Marcel Wanders to come up with a design that's both highly decorated yet minimal at the same time. His Carved Chair - so aptly named for being hand-carved - offers up an intricate Versaille-style floral & twine pattern (see thumbnail for pattern) on a simple (yet slightly feminine) silhouette. This is elegance at its very best.

LONGHI: Button-back sofas and chairs were prominant in many areas throughout the show, however none were as rockstar-chic as the ones seen at Longhi. This modern, deep-seat leather sofa looks quite standard at a glance, yet a closer inspection reveals it's charm: in replace of the usual covered buttons, you will find swarovski-like crystal beads.

JESSE: While the overly-decorated baroque patterns and prints of previous seasons have thankfully subsided, a more discreet and subtle style of adornement was definitely alive and well at the fair this year. This sideboard by Jesse featured a tone-on-tone glossy/matte floral on a single door front. The overall impact was minimal yet elegant.

EDRA: Inspired by water lillies, the Aguapé chair from Fernando and Humberto Campana is comprised of a number of separate leather pieces - the “petals” - to make up one single covering - the “lily pad”. To that same idea, it would stand to reason the legs of Aguapé chair are the stems. Regardless, this chair is a truly beautiful example of art imitating nature.

SAWAYA & MORONI: It's virtually impossible to talk about modern design these days without mentioning Zaha Hadid. The Pritzker prize winner - while schooled in architecture - has of late been a regular feature on the furnishings and accessories scene. These colorful bowls for Sawaya & Moroni resemble pieces of sharred glass, yet are also in keeping with the futuristic “swoosh” silhouettes that Hadid is so well known for.

TOM DIXON: Continuing with the use of rich plushy velvets he introduced last year with his wing chair, Tom Dixon offered up a new “shapely” silhouette (available in both sofa and sofa chair versions). Shown here, the soft rolling figure of this lovingly titled “Plump” chair is truly a pleasure to sink into.

LIGNE ROSET: Although quite simplistic overall, something about the Lines sideboard by Peter Maly draws your eye and holds it. Could it be the perfect shapes made of diagonal lines? The blend of balance & assymetry? The simultaneous sense of order and chaos? Whatever the reason, this is piece is a sure seller.

DIAMANTINI & DOMENICONI: While there wasn't a lot of accessories to be seen, the show did have a few interesting accessory exhibitors here and there. This particular piece - a clock called Gomitolo by Benedetta & Carlo Tamborini - has a removable/washable cotton cable-knit cover and looks more like a throw pillow than a wall clock. Indeed, a few were piled like pillows on the floor of the booth.

LAURA MERONI: The crowds of people hovering around the Laura Meroni booth were all there to take in the super-deep seated leather sofa. More like a bed than a piece of living room furniture, this sofa is ideal for those who love to curl up with a great book or movie and lounge the afternoon away.

KARTELL: The fabulous new Frilly collection by Patricia Urquiola is to 2008 what the Louis Ghost by Philippe Stark was to 2001. A polycarbonate mold with a rippled or pleated appearance, Frilly is yet another example of a elegant detailing within a minimal design. Available in a variety of bold & bright semi-transparent tones, there's a color to complement any color scheme.