It’s not often you find us writing about other writing here at .W – we’re far too committed to our own art to see far beyond the wordy confines of our desktop. The recent launch of international design tome Works That Work (WTW), however, had us pausing at our keyboards and drooling over both its editorial content and its subversive plans for distribution. With a remit of showcasing overlooked creativity and oft-ignored design from around the world, WTW limits its advertising to a maximum of eight full-page adverts per issue.

Billing itself as a ‘National Geographic for design’, Works That Work is disseminated via an innovative social distribution model that attempts to bypass the usual super-costly distribution process. In the WTW model, a reader can approach their favourite local store and ask if they’d be willing to stock the magazine – if yes, that reader buys copies of the magazine direct from WTW then sells them to the store at a profit of 10 – 15%. In this way local shops are supported, readers become partners, and the magazine’s publishers avoid spending a bulk of their time on mind-crushing distribution issues, rather than uncovering the very best examples of unusual creativity from around the world. That works for us.