London-based designer Luke Pearson creates inventive objects that challenge conventional design. Pearson and Tom Lloyd, his partner at PearsonLloyd studio, focus on furniture, transport, and product design--objects often in need of reinvention to suit rapidly advancing technologies. For Virgin Atlantic, the team created multi functional upper-class airline seats that convert from a chair and table to a fully flat bed, and their Twist table for MO by Martínez Otero is a sculptural, geometric piece crafted from gloss lacquered laminated medium-density fi berboard, which curves to create smooth flowing surfaces for the legs and tabletop. The duo's new modular screen system, called Link, will be exhibited for the fi rst time in North America at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York from May 17 to 20. We spoke to Pearson about where he finds inspiration.

What are PearsonLloyd's core design values?
I think the fact that we are not trying to perfect a style but simply approach each design with fresh eyes and with integrity is key. We are interested in technology, the future, and our legacy, which inevitably means we don't want to fi ll the world with ill-considered rubbish.

What makes the new Link system so special?
Link is very interesting because we were approached by Arpro, a company that manufactures expanded polypropylene [commonly used for packaging], and they told us about this wonderful material and what it can do. It enables you to build structures that you can use repeatedly. It has long wear characteristics. They wanted us initially to produce something with a double function, because they wanted to promote the idea of packaging having a second life. We're showing what this material can do in a very pure way.

Where do you get inspired?
Well, we both have broad inspiration. We're industrial designers. We're optimists. We believe in the future. We both love cities and get an incredible thrill from traveling. The cultural differences influence us continually and change our perception of the world and response to product. We have this crazy world based on traveling around and burning fossil fuels, which is pure madness.

Recently, in Britain, there was an announce ment on TV that somebody had produced a car that ran on compressed air, which is a beautiful idea. It's like those toy boats you get in the bath where you blow up a balloon and stick it on the back of the boat and off it chugs! This idea of the future isn't always based on highly technical or NASA-like advances. Sometimes it's a little solution that is staring you right in the face that has been there all along. It just needs somebody to apply [himself] to it. Infl uences come from everywhere. They have as much to do with historical understanding as they do with future gazing.

Hero Worship
Forget about reality--this spring and summer, larger-than-life themes dominate the big screen. Take, for example, the dark, steely backdrops in Marvel Studios' gritty good-versus-evil tale of comic-book hero Iron Man, which opens May 2. The Wachowski brothers (creators of The Matrix) revamp Japanese anime series in Warner Brothers' Speed Racer, a liveaction film chock full of neon palettes, which opens May 9. And an oldschool adventurer makes a comeback on May 22 in Paramount Pictures' Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which pits Indy against Communism in the 1950s.

And the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (www.metmuseum.org) explores legendary looks in its "Super heroes: Fashion and Fantasy" exhibition, with nearly 60 ensembles of sensational movie costumes and superhero-inspired fashion designs, which opens May 7.

Modern Masters
Two 20th-century visionaries are revisited in new oversize art books. Oliver Wick's Mark Rothko, available May 13 from Skira/Rizzoli (www.rizzoliusa.com), traces the evolution of the artist's work, culminating with the strong, colorful paintings that mark his singular style. In June, Phaidon Press (www.phaidon.com) releases Le Corbusier Le Grand, which explores the life of the famous modernist architect and delves into his artistic endeavors beyond the design of buildings.