Last month, in honour of Mother's Day, I dedicated my editor's letter to my mother. I've been really touched to receive all your lovely letters and phone calls in response. It was so nice to hear so many other people directly relating to how I felt – and my mum loved hearing your stories too!

This month, I am going to heartily disagree with one of the most notable designers of our age. Philippe Starck recently announced his intended retirement from design, going on to say that he sees himself as "a producer of materiality" and deeming everything he designed "unnecessary". This may be true in some sense, but that doesn't mean that design in all forms is useless. It's innovative design that will give us a future. The great designers and thinkers will bring us eco-positive cars, or a home that remains cool in summer and generates energy for the winter months. Not every idea or design will be groundbreaking, but they certainly won't all be citrus squeezers, either. Thomas Edison once said, "I didn't fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn't work." Every time you water the flowers, you also water the weeds. Sometimes you have to tolerate a bit of fluffy consumerism to enable a really great design to find its life.

Maybe what Starck really needed was to spend some time scouring the street of Milan during its famous annual furniture fair, Salone Internazionale del Mobile. I had the privilege of attending again this year, and was once again stunned by the incredible creativity and design. I spent so much time talking to young designers about their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their designs. On a more personal note, I was incredibly proud to discover so many talented Australian designers amongst the crowd – not hidden in the backstreets, but making their mark on the international stage. It was a truly inspiring trip.

Wendy