Last month's Łódź Design Festival showed the work of the most promising Polish design talents alongside thematic exhibitions and workshops. Here are ten up-and-coming designers and their projects.

ASHka, by Mateusz Mioduszewski

Mateusz Mioduszewski is a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, where he is studying industrial design. He presented his ASHka collection at the festival, including ceramic plates, dishes and pots made from ash waste. He also makes tiles from the material.

The ash for the collection comes from Polish coal-burning power stations. After numerous attempts, Mioduszewski created a material made from up to 70 per cent ash waste, with can be easily formed and naturally dyed. The rest of the material is made up of clay and water.

Guide-dog harness, by Paulina Morawa

Paulina Morawa presented a guide-dog harness for the blind. The most important goal of the project was to reinforce the flow of information transmitted from the dog's front paws to the handle, which allows the blind person to avoid obstacles.

For this reason, the harness has a plastic shell underneath the textile layer, which makes it more rigid than conventional products.

Morawa is finishing her master's degree in the Faculty of Industrial Forms at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, whilst interning at local studio Ergo Design.

LOPP, by Pawlak & Stawarski Studio

Bartłomiej Pawlak and Łukasz Stawarski, who together run Pawlak & Stawarski Studio, graduated from the University of Arts in Poznan. They both work in the design department at their alma mater as well as running their studio, which specialises in furniture design.

At the festival, the duo presented their LOPP collection, consisting of two desks and a dressing table. Each item of furniture has a drawer for storing slim documents or odds and ends. In addition the dressing table has an adjustable mirror that can be rotated.

Artificial heart controller case, by Klaudia Gołaszczyk

Klaudia Gołaszczyk is a product designer at strategic design agency CODE design, where she also conducts trend research. Gołaszczyk graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice.

Her project was created in cooperation with a cardiac research centre in Zabrze. The artificial heart the the centre fits in patients, called Religa Heart, required a wearable casing for the controller that could be worn on the body. The resulting product allows those fitted with an artificial heart to participate actively in society.

Holi, by Agnieszka Cieszanowska and Anna Jurgielewicz

Agnieszka Cieszanowska and Anna Jurgielewicz presented a series of vases at the fair with a colourful disc that intersects three-quarters of the way down the body of the structure. When exposed to sunshine the disc casts colourful shadows, and the water inside seems to shimmer.

Cieszanowska and Jurgielewicz are both studying in the Faculty of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Gaja, by Katarzyna Staszel

Kraków Academy of Fine Arts graduate Katarzyna Staszel displayed a set of kitchen utensils called Gaja as her final graduation project. They were inspired by the traditional ceramic dishes used to bake bread in her mountainous home region in Poland.

The project consists of three modules – a bowl, a sieve and a flat dish. Each of them is used at various stages in the bread-making process, from kneading the dough and letting it rise, to baking the bread in the oven.

Ginka, by Sylwia Juchimowicz and Tabanda

Tabanda are a design and production trio, specialising in furniture made of plywood and aluminium. At this year's festival they presented an armchair called Ginka, created in collaboration with Sylwia Juchimowicz, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.

The armchair's organic form was inspired by the geometry of Japanese ginkgo leaves. It comes in three variations: with a seat made of bent plywood veneered with oak, with a wooden frame and an upholstered seat, and in a fully upholstered version.

New Eve, by Beata Nikolajczyk-Miniak

Beata Nikolajczyk-Miniak studied in Łódź where the festival took place at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts. She currently works as an assistant in the Faculty of Interior Design and Architecture at the institution.

She presented a baby food dispenser in the shape of a breast, called New Eve, that combines the functions of a soother and a bottle.

Developed on the basis of medical consultations and two years of research, the project is similar in shape and structure to a woman's breast with the nipple area made from a softer plastic than the main structure.

TRIAshoes, by Karolina Leśków

Karolina Leśków presented her compact urban footwear, TRIAshoes, which consists of a material base and three types of sole – flat, semi-solid and solid at the festival.

The lacing method docks the particular sole securely in the shoe and adheres the whole structure to the surface of the foot.

Leśków graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Design at University of Arts in Poznań, where she majored in design.

Titanium, silicon, air, by Paulina Kwiatkowska

Paulina Kwiatkowska has been working at Tomasz Augustyniak Studio in Poznań for the last four years. She is a graduate of the University of Arts in Poznań and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

She displayed her collection of objects which address the often poor quality of indoor air by purifying it, as well as regulating humidity and temperature.

Kwiatkowska used a special fabric, reinforced with substances such as titanium oxide and silica gel that increase the efficiency of air purification processes.