Magazines without frontiers

Back in October we reported on Peter Bil'ak's new magazine Works That Work, and issue one has just landed here at Computer Arts HQ. The cover includes an image of an improvised 'bastard' chair from a feature inside, and is printed on a light, leathery textured paper full bleed.

The magazine offers a selection of features discussing design and creativity in extremely varied locations. You can read about the cooking techniques of battlefield chefs, gardens in refugee camps, the Catholic Church and beauty, cooked meal distribution networks in India, public toilets at Amsterdam airport, poster design and more. There's even a short play inside, and lots of great photography.

Contributors range from architects to designers and on to inventors and street artists. Bil'ak and his team always intended to create a magazine that stood out from many of the other curated, ego-massaging choices already on the market. Just by the selection of material inside, it lives up to it's coverline, 'Exploring human creativity in all its expressions.'

The first issue was produced on €30,000 of funding crowdsourced online. To reach readers out there, they are implementing an innovative social distribution model. Readers who love the mag can become distributors, buying small quantities of them at hubs in Berlin, London, New York and The Hague, and selling them on. Reader-distributors will get a 50 per cent discount on purchases, with the Works That Work website pointing visitors towards where can buy the magazine depending on their location. This method of reaching new readers may well provide a new model for other designers who publish independently to follow.

You can buy a digital copy for €8 online, or a print copy for €16. The mag is sub-A4 size at 172mm x 239mm. You can read our extended interview with Peter Bil'ak, founder of Typotheque, in the current issue of Computer Arts Collection.