Instead of a stroll down memory lane, we’re kicking up our heels and heading full tilt forward. The first thing we’re going to do is rent a snazzy little red sports car and drive down the Amalfi coast. Then we’re going to toast and tango until dawn. After that, we’re jetting off to Waikiki Beach to spend a few nights counting the stars. When we’re done stargazing, we’ll dine out at 25 Michelin-starred restaurants. And we’re bringing all our clients, friends, subscribers, lovers, neighbours and family along with us.

The magazine that has defined design for the past 25 years – with its lively, fresh coverage of architecture, interiors, graphics and products and incisive investigations into the issues that shape them – is staking a claim on the year 2010. Each of Azure’s eight issues, from our January Houses Annual through to our November/December issue, will be silver plated in a special way, and we’re rolling out a series of special events, lectures and shows over the course of the entire year.

For the first special initiative of this very special year, we asked Barcelona’s Javier Mariscal to design and illustrate our annual calendar. Mariscal has a fantastic talent for drawing that he can also translate into three-dimensional objects. He’s famous for creating the Cobi mascot for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, as well as graphics for Camper, furniture for Moroso and Magis, and interiors for various restaurants and hotels.

Mariscal is also a masterful cartoonist. His barely outlined yet amazingly communicative characters (dogs, cats, people) live truly animated lives spent fishing in the Mediterranean and careening along the coastlines. Mariscal’s irrepressible spirit of fun and adventure, of vibrant optimism and glorious naiveté, inspired the rollicking escapade we’ve imagined for 2010.

It’s going to be quite a year. We hope you enjoy it as much as we intend to.

Best wishes for 2010 from your friends at Azure.