Annoucning Niche design: The Creative Practice

Inside the next issue + patronage

Niche design isn't connected to Publishers Marketplace in any way

This year I’ve been dedicating myself to the creative process.

To me, the creative process isn’t just about the process per se. It’s not just about the ideas, the work, and its outcomes. It’s rather more existential and carries a lot of emotional and mental aspects.

This year's issue explores the forces that shape creative work: enduring suffering, seeking recognition, and being shaped by others, while questioning the meaning of failure and success. Alongside these are threads on working under a pseudonym, the state (and future?) of creative tools, and the role workspaces play in supporting creative practice.

I’m also stepping outside the design-tech bubble. The current lineup features voices from music, type design, graphic design, industrial design, writing, and software development:

• Rad Brown, AKA Ezekiel James Hampton, a hip-hop producer

• hermit the cat, a Twitter pseudonym

• Filip Skrzesinski, co-founder of Subframe

• Che-Wei Wang & Taylor Levy AKA CW&T

• Steve Ruiz, founder of tldraw

• Stephen Haney, founder of Paper

• Henrik Karlsson, writer of Escaping Flatland

• Noël Leu, type designer and co-founder of Grilli Type

• Nikita Prokopov, an open-source developer

• Ryan Gilbert, the Workspaces newsletter guy

Patroniche

Niche design is a complete self-published project. I write, edit, design, interview, and operate each issue myself.

More funding lets me allocate more resources to the project: investing more in printing materials, hiring collaborators, and putting more into promotion and marketing. It all leads down the road towards making Niche design a sustainable publishing business.

Enter Patroniche. For $100, you can become a patron and receive:

• 2 physical copies of the issue + special digital version

• Your name immortalized in the colophon

Above all, becoming a Niche patron means you directly support me as a self-publisher.

Sponsors

Unlike last year, which was fully self-funded, this year I managed to bring some cool sponsors (and a grant!) to help me fund the work. Thanks, Bear Blog, Kubera, Paper, Subframe, and Expeditions, for making this possible.

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Continuing the tradition, the essays from this issue will also be available publicly. Watch me work with the door open:

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Printing is planned for late fall.

STAY NICHE.