This week's picks:

+ Tokyo Design Festival at Core77, featuring 100% Design, Prototype and the Blickfang Show "(usually happening in Zurich, Vienna and Stuttgart), showing fresh design from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.".

+ The DESIGNERSOPEN 2008 gallery at Core77, "one of the biggest design events in the east of Germany. During three days (24-26 Oct.) in Leipzig, we captured the power of a young design generation during a creative fight club, design exhibitions, historical art fair, and downtown specials.".

+ PingMag's Tokyo Design Week 2008 Ultimate Party Planner, "a (nearly) complete list of all the design and art gatherings, exhibitions and parties.".

+ Ellen Ectors SwiTCh table and chair at designboom, "a simple piece of furniture which can be used in two ways. When moved together, the ball form nestles into the u-shaped piece to create a seat with a backrest. Removing the ball and flipped the backrest over turns the combo into a stool and table.".

+ Martin Sämmer's transformer-shelf, a storage unit where one can "constantly rearrange the different units towards each other, creating myriad different shapes". Via pan-dan.

+ Jessy Gemayel's Fantomatik table, "a table used for drinking tea and, thanks to thermochromic inks, when you place something hot onto it, patterns appear which then disappear as soon as the table cools. Via DESIGNSPOTTER.

+ More of Jon Stam's Curiosity Cabinet at matandme, "I found out that there are 2 hidden values in this piece of furniture. 1: 16 drawers store objects and pictures. 2: the other 16 drawers have a RFID reader.".

+ Lufdesign's Tinkling messaging chime, "receive a message, the Tinkling rings, its blowing tail changes color, and a message is displayed across the embedded screen.". Via Yanko Design.

+ Arik Levy's Intersections silver jewelry collection for Christofle. Via Yatzer.

+ Interesting note: Google's G1 phone was designed in collaboration with San Francisco based design duo Mike and Maaike. Via designboom.

+ Form magazine has a preview of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's Vegetal Chair, they "spent four years working on a chair whose structure is derived from the growth of plants.".

+ Freeman Transport collapsible bikes for travel, an easily disassembled and packed "bike [that] can be checked onto airplanes with no oversized baggage fee.". Via Josh Spear.