We’re keen to hear about your projects and ongoing research. At Futuress, design is as much artifacts and aesthetics as it is, for instance, the grammatical structure of a language, the infrastructure of a border, or the systems underpinning how food is circulated. We’re looking for stories on the politics of design and the design of politics, on marginalized visual and political histories, on design’s role in activist causes, and on the impact of social structures and processes on our personal experiences of the world.
We welcome unsolicited pitches from people who have important stories to tell—no matter whether you’re a professional journalist, designer, emerging writer, academic researcher, committed activist, or simply someone with something to say. You can read more about our approach to storytelling in our Futuress Writer’s Pack.
We’re also interested in hearing about your projects, events, or upcoming plans for potential story features and social media mentions. Please keep in mind that we’re a small team, so it may take us a while to respond to you. Due to our current scope and size, we also may not be able to accept every pitch we would like to commission.
1) Pitch a story:
- We generally publish non-fiction stories. That is, fact-based essays, interviews, features, investigative reporting, or narrative nonfiction pieces. In certain instances, we’re also open to publishing fiction.
- We believe in the power of storytelling to reach broad audiences. If you’re most comfortable with academic writing, for instance, we’re happy to help you adapt your research into a format geared towards a wider readership.
- We publish in English, and support non-native speakers. While we acknowledge that English is deeply entangled in the colonial matrix of power, it’s the language spoken by the largest percentage of non-native English speakers, and a powerful bridging language. We offer additional editorial support to non-native English speakers.
- We pay competitive prices. We offer an honorary of 150 CHF for republishing and between 200 CHF and 400 CHF for newly developed text depending on the length and amount of research and reporting.
For open calls for pitches or fellowships, please stay tuned through our newsletter or Instagram channel and check out our Learning page!
2) Internships
As a nonprofit decentral project, we sadly don’t have the capacity to offer internships. However, we facilitate fellowship programs from time to time so subscribe to our newsletter to stay tuned!