Design is design is design

According to reliable market research, 86 percent of designers practicing today are protean creatures, in trade talk "generalists." Thus we decided that February was the right time to raise the curtain on designer versatility (a word we like immensely better). This issue presents a select group of talents on multiple stages, demonstrating that design isn't an either/or profession. It's both-and—and then some. Brad Lynch appears here with two projects, a minimal apartment and a physicists' office in Chicago, Arthur de Mattos Casas is represented by a São Paulo restaurant and a Rio penthouse complete with lap pool, and David Ling's kid-you-not moat-divided New York space is home and office at once. All are brilliantly delivered, unique performances. But "play" be damned. Design is design.

February is also the time of year when the tropics beckon a pale nation, and we followed the call to Miami. The showrooms, restaurants, nightspots, and hotels we feature clearly prove it's one of the capitals of design, calendar notwithstanding. Our tour is chaperoned by Alison and Laurinda Spear in "Crosslines" and rounded out by "Matters of Design," Beth Dunlop's essay on Miami art and architecture. Indeed, February is first-class all around.