I-Ref

Norman and Isabelle launched a publication called I-Ref. The pitch is to write about the people doing the writing - treat the voices themselves as interesting. They pulled together twenty-eight contributors, some already established, some from the half-visible edges of Berlin’s culture and design scenes. I know a few of them - Deniz and Dori from lil.bit, Clemens from iGNANT, Luise. People I’ve crossed paths with enough times to care what they’re working on.

The original German framing gets pretty baroque - fired synapses, walking societies, all that language that hovers between profound and ridiculous depending on the angle you hit it from. But underneath it, the idea is simple: get people with real taste, give them room, assume it matters. No manifesto, no grand defense of digital publishing. Just here’s what we’re doing.

I don’t know if I-Ref becomes something that lasts. Could be a season of good work that fades when everyone moves on. Could be something that actually builds. But I like that they didn’t sit around waiting for conditions to be right. Just started it with people they believed in.