Publishing
Biľak initiated a number of autonomous projects where the company is the client, designer and the publisher all in one. In 2000 Peter Biľak and Stuart Bailey co-founded Dot Dot Dot, a seminal art and culture magazine. In 2013, Biľak started Works That Work, ‘a magazine of unexpected creativity’ that not only broadened the definition of design but also introduced new operating models for independent periodicals.
Dot Dot Dot
, 2000 — Dot Dot Dot was a biannual, self-published, after-hours magazine, originally centred on graphic design, later broadening in scope to interdisciplinary journalism on subjects that affect the way we look at the world and how we think about and make design. Acclaimed for its witty writing about the past, present and future of visual culture and imaginative design, Dot Dot Dot matured into a jocuserious journal based on true stories, with subjects ranging from art design to music, to language, literature, and architecture. The design critic Rick Poynor, called the magazine ‘the most stimulating and original visual culture magazine produced by designers since Emigre’s heyday in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s’, for its mix of fascinating, out-of-the-ordinary, demanding and rewarding content. The first 11 issues were published, edited and designed by Peter Biľak and Stuart Bailey, subsequent issues by Dexter Sinister (Stuart Bailey & David Reinfurt).
Works That Work
, 2014 — Works That Work was an international magazine publishing original, in-depth essays and stories about the impact of creative ideas in everyday life. Editor-in-chief Peter Biľak tag-lined it ‘a magazine of unexpected creativity’, and saw it as a vehicle for challenging the widely held view that design is only about making objects stylish and more expensive. Thus, the magazine published human interest stories about design’s relevance to the wider public and how good design leads to the permanent betterment of life for all involved, showcasing examples from such far-flung locales as towns north of the Arctic Circle, villages in India and cities in Africa, as well as metropolises all over the globe. The magazine also set out to rethink publishing models, treating its readers not as a target group to be sold to advertisers, but as partners who made the project possible and who deserved radical transparency regarding its finances and operations. Readers were also the focus of the magazine’s ‘Social Distribution’, a system in which they distributed the magazine to their friends and neighbours and were paid for their efforts. Works That Work received awards and enthusiastic press coverage during its run, but more importantly, it broadened the discussion about design, making it relevant to designers and non-designers alike, surprising its readers with things they didn’t know, and often didn’t know that they didn’t know. The magazine was art-directed by Atelier Carvalho Bernau, and edited, published and distributed by Typotheque.