Uncommon Future PressLondon, UK

PRESS · anatomy of the specimen

One organism, five organs.

SPECIMEN UFP-001 COLLECTED · LONDON, MIDSUMMER MMXXIII CULTURED · IN PUBLIC SALON SETTINGS CONDITION · ALIVE, GROWING ( CLICK ANY FIGURE TO OPEN ITS DRAWER )
FIG. BLorethe origin record — a micro-play in three acts

THE LORE · the origin of the institution

A micro-play in three acts: the story and origins of UFP.

Want to read a three-act micro-play? It’s a mock epic, but without the mock1. For those who love decorating their time with language.

Before it was all goo and bloom, cheeky lexical quibs and coinage; before it was acid critique and serious editorial guidelines; before the press’s voice that says “hi” flirtatiously to its followers to secure more submissions, UFP was born from someone’s rage and delight, Hollywood courtship and higher education sabotage, muteness and life story converging2. If it looks like we were born this way, it’s because we were.

ACT IMuteness; ascent
ACT IIGravitas; at the summit
ACT IIIHome; in outer space
READ OUR LORE →
FIG. AFounderthe masthead — one founder, several lives

MASTHEAD · the founder, in her several lives

Catherine D.L. Tan — founder, CEO and publisher of Uncommon Future Press, studio portrait.

Catherine D.L. Tan

Founder, CEO & Publisher · legal philosopher of avant-garde technologies · economic diplomat · national-prizewinning novelist & playwright

For a living, Catherine Tan designs legal worlds for things that don’t yet fit our categories: a bonkers job description, and an accurate one. She came up with Law and the Challenge of Weird Fringe Things, a field which only she teaches, asking how shiny new things (de-extinction, indigenous robots, plant-object cyborgs, decentralised digital planets) destabilise the ancient, load-bearing constructs that prop social reality up. She works at the level of the new axioms brought on by avant-garde technologies, and designs worlds based on them. UFP is the same work, run on knowledge instead of law: she designs the future of thought, and builds the media systems to carry it.

The press runs on her personal philosophy, scaled to an institution: world-destroying, then world-making.

SELECTED DISTINCTIONS — GATES CAMBRIDGE SCHOLAR · MOST VISIONARY CEO IN MEDIA & PUBLISHING, 2024 · NATIONAL LITERARY PRIZE, GEOPOLITICAL SATIRE · TOP 100 TRAILBLAZING QUEER ALUMNI, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE — ALONGSIDE TILDA SWINTON, SIR IAN McKELLEN & STEPHEN FRY · Hollywood × Higher Education

THE FULL PROFILE, IN HER SEVERAL LIVES → HOME

The full masthead debuts as contracts are countersigned. We print names when the ink is dry.

FIG. E · HOW WE WORK ↓
FIG. CColophonthe design story — why everything looks like this

THE COLOPHON · the design story, plated

Goo is the thesis.

Every designer who works on UFP receives the same brief: What happens to organic matter when it is transported to outer space, or an extreme atmosphere? Does it elasticise? Does it bend, does it break, does it fractalise — does it change shape? What does it look like in 4D, in 5D?

When people talk about the visual inspiration for their visual universe, they rarely mention law. But in UFP’s birth and provenance, the act of writing and chairing Taking the Law for a Walk in the Anthropocene (RGS-IBG, 2023), law became an uncanny inspiration.

In writing the provocation above, the founder went looking for anything law had not colonised and found only one refuge: deep time. Imagining our fossilised legal structures dying, and leaving behind only bare naked life, put the first images in her head — the rigid, coming undone in the wake of liquid matter composed to dissolve it. Swap law for knowledge, and this whole universe follows: goo, bloom, organic substrate, ether.

acid 001 editorial/ˈæs.ɪd ˌɛd.ɪˈtɔː.ri.əl/ · n. · UFP LEXICON № 001

1.

An aesthetic philosophy in which the design dɘvɔurs the page that hosts it. The substance cɔrrodes the fɔrm. The argument metabolises the vessel it rode in.

2.

The house register of Uncommon Future Press: goo, bloom, liquid grids and organic substrates. Visual systems that cɔnsume themselves. Applied wherever an inherited form has gone too rigid, so that the design dissɔlves it and something breathing pools in its residue.

3.

The condition currently affecting this entı--

FIRST ATTESTED — C.D.L. TAN, 2026

THE HAND · THE IDENTITY'S TRANSLATORS

Our design partner in the visual identity is the brilliant Bim Hjotronsteen · G-W Studios, Sweden — project-managed by the equally brilliant Maria Björklund. Bim translated the founder's bonkers artistic prompts and design inspirations into a universe of hex codes and form.

We deep dive into their own accounts, as well as the creative process, in a later impression of the website. ( IT INCLUDES SANDRA OH'S COBALT BLUE SHIRT, AND LUXURY MONSTERS FROM DESIGN HOUSES. )

SET IN BAGOSS & INTER · MEDIA EX ACADEMIA — MEDIA OUT OF THE ACADEMY · FIRST IMPRESSION · LONDON · MMXXVI

( THE COLOPHON IS AN ORGAN, NOT A COAT OF PAINT )

THE FULL ARGUMENT LIVES AT MATTER →
FIG. D · NUCLEUSDoctrinethe layered statement, the litany, the impressions

WHAT UFP IS · at every register at once

On the surface

A press house.

We liberate paywalled knowledge into new genres — graphic novels, animations, immersive theatre — dissolving the oligopolies that keep ideas behind $14,000/month journal subscriptions.

Underneath

Everything traditional academic publishing fails at.

It doesn't pay?We pay.

It encloses access?We liberate.

It causes labour precarity?We're the net that catches that surplus.

It alienates embodiment, art, culture?We fuse cultural and knowledge production.

It kills neurodivergent thought?We are born from neurodivergent thought.

We collapse the distance between theory and reality, so knowledge may circulate better.

Historical rupture

A 600-year upgrade to the Gutenberg Press.

This is what happens when knowledge exceeds the limits of the printing press and its linear mechanical format.

Parallel reality

A grand performance art at the largest possible register.

This is what scholarship looks like when it's designed for resonance, not enclosure. For public life, not credentialism.

Philosophical dissent

We reject the journal article as natural.

This literary form is an accident of academic oligopolies — it did not originate from intellectuals themselves. UFP is what happens when we stop inheriting that artificial history forged by people who are not us.

IMPRESSIONS · the versioning doctrine

Stepping stones, not a cathedral schedule.

"I hold the Gutenberg ambition loosely — as horizon, not objective. The method is stepping stones: each module is a complete treasure on its own terms, worth the expedition even if the cathedral never gets finished. This is already how UFP operates — staggered launches, each drop an iteration whose results redraw the map for the next."

UFP runs in phases — from curating work that already exists in these forms, to commissioning original work, toward a membership model in the lineage of what Criterion did for film: an institution that confers seriousness on a form the mainstream had not yet learned to take seriously.

THIS SITE IS V.001 · V.002 IS ALREADY GROWING · EACH IMPRESSION PREVIEWS THE NEXT

FIG. EMannershow we work — seven principles, kept in writing

HOW WE WORK · seven principles, kept in writing

I

The engagement fits the person, not the other way around.

On engagement · of structure, not perk

II

The work is the moat, not the noise.

On the work itself · long horizons

III

We pay with honesty, not polish.

On compensation · receipts

IV

Authorship is sacred.

On authorship · load-bearing

V

Beauty is strategy.

On craft · couriered into culture

VI

Sovereignty before scale.

On growth · the most singular

VII

Care is operational, not decorative.

On care · a neurodivergent venture

( FIRST WRITTEN FOR NEW COLLABORATORS & KEY HIRES — REPUBLISHED HERE IN FULL )

Five entry points, one press.

Start anywhere here: from founder to lore to design to doctrine to manners. Each is the same press met from a different angle. Our governing principle is recurrence: the same convictions about authorship, form, care, repeat themselves across every scale.

( NO CORRECT SEQUENCE )

UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSAN INTERNAL DOCUMENT · MMXXVI — VOLUME ONEFIRST IMPRESSION

OF THE PRESS, & ITS WORKING MANNERS

How we work.

A short letter on the manners we keep — toward the work, toward each other, toward those who join us.

FOR NEW COLLABORATORS & KEY HIRES · № 01SET IN BAGOSS / LONDON · 2026
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSOPENING

This is us; this is how we work.

We wrote this because company culture is one of the few things worth fighting for in a market that has taught an entire generation to expect precarity, burnout, and dressed-up extraction. We are trying to do something different. We owe it to anyone who joins us to name what that means — concretely, in writing, with receipts we can be held to.

What follows is both a promise and an expectation. A promise from us about how we'll hold you. An expectation about how you'll hold the work, and how we'll hold each other.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES · A CLOSING · AN INVITATION

HOW WE WORKii
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE FIRSTI OF VII
I

ON ENGAGEMENT · OF STRUCTURE, NOT PERK

The engagement fits the person, not the other way around.

We don't run people through a template. Every engagement — hours, scope, compensation, cadence — is designed around who you actually are and what you actually need. We offer multiple time blocks for you to choose from. We co-design scope around your strengths rather than handing down fixed job descriptions.

This isn't flexibility as a perk; it's a structural commitment that flows from our founding thesis. The journal article is a 600-year historical accident, not an intellectual necessity. Standardised labour contracts are a 20th-century industrial artifact, not an inevitability. We question inherited forms.

HOW WE WORKiii
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE SECONDII OF VII
II

ON THE WORK ITSELF · LONG HORIZONS

The work is the moat, not the noise.

We don't perform progress for the sake of it. We don't optimise for what looks like motion. The work itself — its rigour, its design, its insistence on being beautiful and serious at once — is what makes UFP defensible.

We will choose long time horizons over startup theatre, every time.

A note — a small press is not a startup wearing a tweed jacket. The cadence is different; the patience is different; the rewards are different.

HOW WE WORKiv
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE THIRDIII OF VII
III

ON COMPENSATION · RECEIPTS

We pay with honesty, not polish.

Compensation should be honest about what it is. Small now, scaling with funding, with upside written into your engagement letter.

We do not promise equity without telling you what it actually means. We do not ask you to take less than you are worth while pretending otherwise.

If we can't pay you yet, we say so. If we can, we do.

HOW WE WORKv
AN INTERVAL— III OF VII READ · IV TO COME —PAUSE

We are trying to do something different —

A halfway breath. Three principles read; four to come. The next four turn from the shape of the engagement to the substance of the work — authorship, beauty, sovereignty, care.

THRESHOLDvi
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE FOURTHIV OF VII
IV

ON AUTHORSHIP · LOAD-BEARING

Authorship is sacred.

When you contribute thinking, we attribute it. When you build something, we credit it. When we collaborate, we are explicit about whose idea was whose.

This is load-bearing. Our founder's entire intellectual project rests on the proposition that authorship matters — we don't practice one standard in our publishing and another among ourselves.

A note — a name in the masthead is not a courtesy. It is the receipt that says: this was thought by a person, and we know who.

HOW WE WORKvii
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE FIFTHV OF VII
V

ON CRAFT · COURIERED INTO CULTURE

Beauty is strategy.

Design is not decoration. It is how ideas get couriered into culture. We invest in making things beautiful because beauty is what makes knowledge travel, and because aesthetic seriousness is itself a form of intellectual seriousness.

You will not be asked to cut corners on craft. You will not be asked to ship something that embarrasses you.

HOW WE WORKviii
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE SIXTHVI OF VII
VI

ON GROWTH · THE MOST SINGULAR

Sovereignty before scale.

We will say no to money that would turn us into something we aren't. We will say no to partnerships that demand we dilute the thing.

We are not trying to grow faster than a tech SaaS platform. We are trying to be the most singular.

Growth happens on our terms or it doesn't happen.

HOW WE WORKix
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSPRINCIPLE THE SEVENTHVII OF VII
VII

ON CARE · OPERATIONAL

Care is operational, not decorative.

We are a neurodivergent venture. That isn't marketing language; it is architectural and founder-derived. We work async-first. We write decisions down. We respect different cognitive styles as a working practice, not a nice-to-have.

We name when we are at capacity. We do not glamorise burnout. If you are struggling, we would rather know than pretend.

HOW WE WORKx
UNCOMMON FUTURE PRESSIN CLOSINGCODA

WHAT WE ASK IN RETURN

Take the work seriously. Take each other seriously.

Tell us when something isn't working. Leave when it's time to leave. Stay when it's time to stay.

Help us build something the next hundred people will be proud they worked on.

This is rare ground. We invite you to hold it with us.

IMPRINT

Uncommon Future Press. A code for uncommon future work.

SET IN

Bagoss Standard & Extended, drawn by Stg2.

FIRST WRITTEN

London, MMXXVI. For internal circulation.

HELD BY

Catherine — and the people who join.

— UFP. fin.

HOW WE WORKxi

READING ROOM · press & further reading

RR. 001

Beyond journals: unlocking a new currency for scholarship — University World News

Op-ed · external RR. 002

Reality Design Lab: prototyping new legal worlds — Gates Cambridge

Feature · external RR. 003

Conversations: new ways of disseminating research — dual media profile

Profile · external RR. 004

Impact in publishing — Gates Cambridge

Roundup · external
RR. 005

If the journal article is not inevitable, what could be?

On-site essay · in typesetting