 Designers come up with ideas from all directions. Some get their inspiration from nature, others take a bit of this and a bit of that to make it theirs, whilst the limits of imagination know no bounds for the real creatives. Dan Ziglam and Elliot Brook, however, blend the age-old technique of brainstorming with the excitement of creativity. Take their design company name as an example. When they met up again after graduating in 3D design from Northumbria University, they kept coming up with the notion that whatever they did had to be "dead good". The phrase soon became the fledgling company's title. Now Deadgood is in the middle of its second Launch event featuring the best that the region's design talent can offer. This inspirational collection is set in the unique surroundings of Newcastle city centre's former Pilgrim Street Fire Station (and runs until Sunday, June 25). "We both had a desire to work for ourselves, but not necessarily together," says Dan. "Elliot went travelling after university and I worked in a building site to pay off my student debts. Eventually we got back together and decide to go for it. Everything we did, though, had to be dead good, hence the name." In 2005, the pair - frustrated at the lack of opportunities to present their own, and other designers' work - created a futuristic display at the Castle Keep in Newcastle, attracting more than 1,000 people to the four-day event. This week, it's the turn of the decomissioned fire station to house "an inspirational showcase of contemporary designs" which hopes to double 2005's viewing audience. Design ideas straddle contemporary furniture, distinctive and kitsch jewellery, cutting-edge glass, ceramic products and unusual lighting ideas from a range of regional designers, including five who participated last year. The brainstorming continues with ideas thrown about from materials to shapes to colours to function. And it's not just sitting in a room with a notepad and a lightbulb for company, there's a lot of hard work - and steep learning curves - to negotiate. An idea for seating, for instance, took them into areas nobody had thought of. "We started off designing seating with a complex laminate and bending it in a way that had never been done before," says Dan. "That way it was robust, very durable, waterproof, and available in 200 colours specially for architects and specifiers. "We have spent the last 12 months looking in Germany and Slovenia for metal manufactures - metalwork is a traditional craft in Slovenia and we needed the sort of quality they could offer. Then in the last few months we've been presenting to between 30 and 40 architects." Dan and Elliot have also won a contract to supply the British Council in Khartoum with 50 trendy chairs for its current refurbishment programme. The Deadgood duo have also won a contract to supply mirrors to upmarket furniture store Heals & Sons. These are the UK Mirror - a metre-high silhouette of the British Isles - and Italy, called Mirror Mia. Elliot says: "We're now moving on from contract work into retail and a more personal approach. Our UK Mirror is made of super-polished steel and we can cut the shape out to suit any country's shape. "We just sat brainstorming. Our style is very graphic and we're trying to hang onto that approach with every product. We want to make design fun as well as functional and we really want to put our personalities into each new product." For launch 2006, Deadgood received funding from Business Link, Northumbria University and NESTA, among others. "It's difficult running our own business and running Launch but it's a good way of meeting new people," says Dan. "Next thing we want to do is licence all the other design work through our brand - and we're taking on two grauates through the Enterprise in Design project, a Government-backed scheme that gives students more practical experience than they could get on the normal university course. The degree course at Northumbria is very good, it gets you to design with that commercial aspect to it, but it's difficult to learn about knocking on doors as well. "This year we've been to Slovenia, Stockholm and Milan. We took some furniture to New York - as hand-luggage - and we took some promotional shots on the streets with actual people, not as a studio set-up which can sometimes be a bit sterile." "We're also developing an online Deadgood shop as a launch platform to the trade, journalists and opinion formers." An idea derived from brainstorming, no doubt. * Visit www.deadgoodltd.co.uk or www.deadgoodshop.com Launch 2006 is open at the Central Fire Station in Newcastle from 10am until 6pm today and 10am until 5pm tomorrow and Sunday. Visit www.launch2006.com for details. | 
