BraveNewLit.xyz – Instra customer – (Switzerland)
Independent creators use .xyz domains to build platforms that reflect their interests and connect with their communities. Documentary media project TheJiffy.xyz, by former Huffington Post and Yahoo editor James Cave, chronicles life in New York’s Hudson Valley. Inspiration platform Workspaces.xyz showcases creative setups from professionals worldwide. Woman-owned art gallery Imperfecta.xyz presents diverse artistic formats through rotating exhibitions and installations. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to an independent platform exploring the design and culture behind speculative fiction: BraveNewLit.xyz.
BraveNewLit.xyz is the online home of Brave New Lit, an independent platform focused on the relationship between design and speculative fiction. As a genre, speculative fiction is a broad umbrella term for fiction that departs from consensus reality, encompassing science fiction, horror, fantasy, and imagined alternate histories or futures. According to the platform’s About page, Brave New Lit publishes essays, interviews, and informal conversations once a year, covering topics like “writing techniques, editing, cover art, typography, illustrations, world-building, character designs, and technology design.”
The homepage of BraveNewLit.xyz presents its published works as a row of bold, color-blocked panels, each set with a title in large vertical serif type. The layout evokes a shelf of book spines, with arrows letting visitors page through the full list of essays and recorded conversations. One example, “Invoking Worlds,” is a conversation between founder Sherida Kuffour and speculative fiction writer Ama Josephine Budge, a speculative writer, artist, and pleasure activist whose work takes a queer, decolonial approach to climate colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa. The conversation addresses collaborative creative processes and the physical spaces and routines writers use to develop their work, and is published as both a written transcript and a recorded audio version on SoundCloud. Individual pages also offer a read-only mode, adjustable letter sizing, an option to invert colors, downloadable PDFs, and written descriptions of each contributor’s portrait photo. In the same conversation, Sherida describes accessibility as central to the platform’s design, saying the goal is to ensure that “people of different backgrounds and abilities can adequately read and engage” with what the platform publishes.
Another piece, “Finding Utopia Through Building Community,” is described on the platform as a digital roundtable facilitated by graphic designer Loraine Furter, bringing together Sherida, Iyo Bisseck, Senakirfa Abraham, Hélène Alix Mourrier, Eunice Tchitchiama, and Estelle Ndjop Pom. The website also includes a Bibliography section, organized alphabetically, that lists academic texts, articles, and films referenced across the platform’s published works. According to the About page, Brave New Lit does not run ads, use paywalls, or rely on affiliate marketing, and instead relies on donations and support from partners to fund contributor fees and platform development.
Sherida Kuffour founded Brave New Lit and is also credited on the Colophon page as editor and creative director. According to her personal website, Sherida’s design practice spans user interface and experience design, brand development, and editorial design, built over more than a decade working with startups, agencies, and independent design studios.1 She teaches book design through Dutch design school Design Academy Eindhoven’s MA Contextual Design program and has been a speaker for Dutch cultural organizations, including Writers Unlimited and the Noorderlicht International Photo Festival. Her website states that her graphic design work has been recognized by bodies including the Swiss Design Awards, the Xaver Awards, the Dutch Design Awards, and the Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries Fund. Sherida’s website also states that she holds an MA in Design for Visual Strategies from Sandberg Instituut and a BA in Graphic Design from Ravensbourne University.2
Brave New Lit is shaped by a founder whose design work has received recognition from organizations including the Swiss Design Awards and the Dutch Design Awards. Bringing together writers, designers, and editors, the platform explores how design shapes the experience of speculative fiction. The BraveNewLit.xyz domain gives the platform an online identity directly tied to its name, joining a growing community of creative projects, independent publications, and startups using .xyz to build their brands. You can learn more by visiting BraveNewLit.xyz.
1. https://www.sheridakuffour.com/
2. https://www.sheridakuffour.com/
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