The editor of Top Estate magazine from the Ukraine is Lubov Franchuk., a sharp and professional editor of one of the leading life style magazine in the region. He just sent us a copy of the latest edition which features a wide selection of highly creative architecture and design from far flung places. The Miriello Grafico office is in between a spread on the Bordello Bar from London and Al Rostamani’s latest real estate mega development in Dubai.  Rich visuals throughout, and absolutely no idea what the stories might be about.

Share in the confusion at Top Estate’s website : http://www.top-estate.com.ua

Scheduling a major party on the first day of the stock market’s downturn and the Vice Presidential debates might seem like its own form of social-suicide. Instead, the opening party of The Logan building was exactly what the masses needed. A place to meet, share, commune and understand that we are all in this together. And quite possibly, the innovation and problem-solving skills of the creative community may be more essential to the national dialogue than ever.

Ron Miriello toasted the crowd, “Our shared abilities of creativity and collaboration are fast becoming a new and important currency-type. As the financial markets waver and the myopic drive for individual wealth is paused, there’s an opportunity for the creative mindset and their unique abilities of invention, collaboration and informed risk-taking. The unique abilities of the people in this room are needed at a time like this.”

The celebration brought over 300 designers, architects, politicos, writers, artists and business people together to enjoy an evening in the creative beachhead neighborhood of Barrio Logan. The hosts – Miriello Grafico and LJG Partners – invited friends, clients and community members to a celebration – and celebrate they did. The Barrio restaurant, The Guild, managed the food and Temecula Valley ConVis organized the wines, all offerings from Temecula Valley. The Barrio Logan spokesperson Rachael Ortiz, arts tagger Crol, and the Mariachi Juvenil helped first-time visitors better understand the rich culture and history of the neighborhood. San Diego architects were plentiful, including the designer of The Logan, Jonathan Segal, who created a space where people obviously love to linger, share and invent.

Watch the party video on YouTube created by Jeff Durkin.                                                                        Find incriminating party pictures on Flickr.

There’s a sense of satisfaction and connection when you find a designer has created a simple, uncomplicated solution to a problem you’ve been trying to solve. Mia Cullin, an architect and designer from Sweden, has created a very cool system of interlocking Tyvek paper shapes. These diecut paper flakes can be connected to form a sheet of semi-transparent divider screens, which is just what we created with them to subdivide the open studio area at Miriello Grafico. The product is new and only available currently at SuiteNY in New York City, www.suiteny.com. Take at look at the Mia Cullin website too: http://www.miacullin.com/. IKEA can’t be far behind on making their own version of Mia’s original.

In the small town of Bygggarder in Iceland there is a studio of designers doing some stunning work in graphics, products and furniture. Gudrun Lilja in particular has a way of transforming flat forms into three dimensional objects that are inspiring. Using laser cutting and a variety of manufacturing techniques they are on a roll, creating a series of works that live in the seam between pure sculpture and functional design. The site to visit is http://www.bility.is/

The Barrio Logan section of San Diego is know as the city’s working waterfront community and it’s also know for the Chicano Park murals under the Coronado Bridge, http://www.chicanoparksandiego.com/murals/index.html

When we moved the Miriello Grafico offices to The Barrio was wanted to support the local traditional and asked two local taggers Crol+Werk to tag our roll-up door and our bathroom walls. The mural tradition lives on and The Logan has become more of a landmark and symbol of the neighborhood’s evolution because of the color and vitality of these two guys. You can see their work at http://crolvswerc.com/index.html

I was so curious to know how a designer from such a small and out of the way Italian village produces such wonderful work for great clients. So my wife Marlane and I decided to go visit him. His name is Allesandro Esteri and his multi-disciplined design firm is called Hand Made Graphics. Ale, as he likes to be called and his girlfriend Rea, were waiting outside for us when we arrived in Stia. Stia is an isolated old Tuscan textiles town between Arezzo and Florence, buried in the heart of old-world Italy. And in the middle of Stia is Ale’s home and studio, which is in the former textile factory that he has reworked and filled with his own, varied creations. Photography, furniture, interior design, draperies everything seemingly from the mind of Ale himself. And all of this creativity and high-style in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Well, as lunch unfolded, I learned that what appeared to be a lost village is actually in the middle of a vast region of craftsmen. “What I do here and the way I design for my clients could only happen here in Italy and only with the relationships I have with these craftsmen. I can have anything built I want to, and quickly.” said Ale. ” After I interview a client, I think about their problem for a while. When I decide what I want to suggest as the solution, I prototype the piece with my extensive network of craftsmen-friends. When the client sees the design, they almost always fall in love with the idea because it’s there, complete, already solved in front of them. And I don’t need to go through all that craziness of selling and convincing.” explained Ale. We spent hours over lunch together before we drove over the mountain and away. We’ve become friends now and I am inspired by how he’s blended old craftsmen with modern business to create a unique and wonderful hybrid company the world is hungry for. Go visit sometime in Stia or at http://www.hmg.it

Arcosanti is the the life work and environmental and sociological vision of architect Paolo Solari. It’s located in the Arizona desert, an hour north of Phoenix. Paolo is in his eighties now and has been building at Arcosanti for almost 40 years. He still lectures with students and shares his elastic and eclectic thinkings - if you’re lucky enough to catch him there. You can stay on site for very cheap and you can witness what total commitment to an idea looks like.

Here are some pictures from a few recent trips with my son Ben. Their web site is www.arcosanti.org/

As we brainstormed the layout of our new office building, The Logan, our architect, Jonathan Segal said to me, “I’ll create the building as a blank canvas, you guys paint the canvas and make it your own.” Over a years time, we collected discarded channel-letters from sign makers throughout So. California. A piece of Jack-In-The-Box and Nextel signs from LA, old 40’s dry cleaners script and some Hooter’s letters from a sign maker in the desert near Indio, CA. Each letter was locked together into a new form and new purpose to create a kind of kid’s toy box of old letters. It has became our new office entry icon. Curiously, when we finished placing the last letter-form, there wasn’t one letter left unused.