By day Joe Hall makes conventional office furniture for a firm in Brighton.

But by night he unleashes his creative talents and fashions masterpieces from salvaged, scavenged and recycled materials.

He began back in the Eighties and his work has paid off as he prepares to hold his first exhibition at Metal Guru as part of the Brighton Festival next month.

In the run-up, his work is fast becoming hot property in the world of celebs and design connoisseurs.

Most recently one of his tables, made from glass building blocks, cement and steel has been snapped up by a member of girl band Eternal.

Joe, 41, of Telscombe Cliffs, said: "I have always had a need to fulfil my creative streak ever since I can remember.

"I may just see a shape somewhere and that will inspire me to create a new piece of furniture.

"I recently made some car springs into a stool. I get such satisfaction from translating my initial idea on to paper and following it through to the finished article. I love the fact that it is not run of the mill and it is completely unique."

He originally trained in graphic design at Eastbourne College but left the course to work for the family furnaces business.

Yet it was only when he stumbled across a chair made from a Rover car seat in designer Ron Arad's shop in Covent Garden that his imagination really took off.

The designer Rover Chairs are now collectors' items, fetching thousands of pounds at sales in London, New York and Paris.

Mr Hall, who is married with two children, was so inspired he designed his own Peugeot 604 chairs which Stock, Aitken and Waterman purchased for their London recording studios.

The chairs also had pride of place in clothes shop Hunter in Bond Street, Brighton, in the Eighties.

His car gearbox stools, complete with cast iron tractor seats, adorned the Escape Bar on Brighton seafront.

Since then he has managed to juggle his passion for furniture design with a normal job and bringing up a family.

He said: "Since my work has been sold in Metal Guru it has gone from strength to strength. As fast as I make work it is sold.

"Although my work looks quite stark and clean cut, it is popular with all sorts of people. I recently made a Jaguar chair for the shop and it sold immediately."

One of his ambitions has always been to exhibit at the Brighton Festival.

He said: "I have been working hard to get everything finished since before Christmas but when I see my work on display in the window I know it will all have been worth it."