Editorial Guidelines

Design Anthology publishes original journalism and our readers come to us for writing that reflects the human experience. This quality cannot be automated.

We recognise the value of generative AI in research and analysis of information, administrative tasks, transcription, translation, organisation and the exploration of ideas. Used responsibly, these applications can improve efficiency without compromising editorial integrity. However, Design Anthology draws a clear distinction between research assistance and authorship.

We do not publish writing that has been generated, rewritten, expanded, summarised or stylistically edited by artificial intelligence. Every sentence published by Design Anthology must be written and refined by only the credited author or our editors.

This policy applies equally to large language models and other generative AI tools, regardless of platform or provider.

AI-generated information should never be treated as authoritative or cited as a source and all factual claims must be verified through conventional journalistic methods.

What we permit
Contributors may use AI to support their work in limited ways, including:

• Brainstorming story directions

• Summarising publicly available source material as a starting point for further reporting

• Translating non-English material for reference

• Transcribing interviews or recordings

• Assisting with administrative or organisational tasks

• Generating search terms or identifying publicly available sources that will subsequently be verified independently

What we do not permit
Design Anthology will not accept work in which AI has been used to:

• Draft any part of an article

• Rewrite or improve prose

• Edit for style, tone or clarity

• Expand notes into paragraphs

• Generate introductions, conclusions or transitions

• Rewrite quotations or paraphrase interviews

• Create any kind of analysis, opinion or criticism

If AI has materially influenced submitted copy, the submission does not meet our editorial standards.

Why
Writing is evidence of observation and judgement. Generative AI tends towards language that is coherent but homogenised and predictable. Design Anthology values writing with specificity and personality. We would rather publish prose that is occasionally imperfect than prose that is competent but anonymous.

Editorial review
Editors may ask contributors about their writing process where questions arise regarding authorship. This should not be interpreted as an accusation but as part of our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the publication.

Contributors may be asked to provide supporting material such as interview notes, drafts or reporting documentation where appropriate.

Knowingly submitting AI-generated or AI-edited copy while representing it as original work constitutes a breach of trust with copy rejected and future commissions declined or withdrawn without notice.

Sharing copy
We adhere to standard journalistic principles and do not share copy, quotes or other materials externally prior to publication, including with subjects or brands.

Fact checking and corrections
We undertake rigorous fact checking and in the rare case of a mistake, will publish a correction.

Conflicts of interest
If you have a conflict of interest in a story you are working on, financial or otherwise, you must declare it to us at the earliest possible time. Our reader must trust that they are not being misled.

Real-world reporting
We expect our writers to visit, see or meet the project, place or subject that you are writing about. If this is not possible, we expect a video tour and phone interview to ensure that we publish stories about the real experience, and not a press release.

Quotes
We expect stories to use quotes from real people. These must be gathered via a phone call, a video call or an in-person interview. We do not publish quotes that were gathered via messages or emails.

Partnerships
Any editorial material that has been created on behalf of a commercial partner will be always labelled ‘Partnership’. When we tag a story visually as a partnership we use the ‘×’ character instead of ‘x’. The partner brand’s name should appear first. For example: ‘Rimowa × Design Anthology’.

Pay attention to the Design Anthology tone. It is informed and literate, not overly scholarly but we don’t publish marketing-speak.

In order avoid the perception internally or externally that our output is a commodity, we never use the word ‘content’ at Design Anthology. We publish stories, social posts, magazines, etc. Further to this, we broadcast ‘films’ on our YouTube channel and website, rather than ‘videos’, ‘clips’ or similar.

Please use ‘Design Anthology’ when referring to our brand (rather than ‘D/A’ or ‘DA’ or ‘d/a’). We always italicise Design Anthology in body copy and never in headlines.

Check your work
Proof-read your work for simple mistakes before filing it, as though it will be published unedited.

Confirm spellings
Always double-check spelling of names of people, works, companies, etc. with your sources.

• Design Anthology uses UK spelling and grammar and the metric system of measurement (e.g. a 200-square-metre home)

• Refer to the Oxford English Dictionary

• Use Oxford commas only if necessary to avoid ambiguity, e.g. ‘gold, black, and red and white’, not ‘gold, black and red and white’

• Use single quotes throughout, and only use double quotes for quotes within quotes

• Italicise foreign words if they aren’t commonly used in English, e.g. verre églomisé, not sushi

• Italicise names of works, e.g. books, films, works of art

• Single space after a full stop

• Use ‘that’ for defining clauses and ‘which’ for non-defining clauses

• Use last names when referring to people except where it would be unclear

• Lower-case letters after a colon, except in captions

• Spaced em dashes in text, unspaced en dashes to indicate ranges, e.g. 45–50 years old

• No full stops on captions

• For numbers, use words up to ten and digits afterwards, e.g. nine, ten, 11

• Write time in full words within sentences — e.g. half past ten in the morning, a quarter to three in the afternoon — and in 24-hour format for standalone references, captions and listings: 14:30.

• For dates, use D MMMM YYYY in body copy, e.g. 24 May 1960

• In systems, processes and filenaming, use ISO formatting: YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. 1960-05-24

• Collaborations are never marked with an ‘x’ character. Always use a symmetrical ‘×’ character, e.g. Tom Fereday × Pitt & Giblin

• Apostrophes and closing quote marks are curly, never straight, e.g. ’ and never '

• Hyphenate compass directions and regions (e.g. 'towards the south-east' or 'south-eastern') except for official place names (e.g. 'Southeast Asia')

• No periods in abbreviations, initials or after titles, e.g. NATO, PhD, JRR Tolkien, Mr Smith

We use typical English language capitalisation, which means proper nouns, including company or brand names, are strictly in Title Case.

Other capitalisation examples:

• we+ → We+ (title case, keep spoken punctuation)

• DESIGNART → Designart (title case)

• WhatsApp → WhatsApp (camel case only when there’s one cap in the middle)

• Studio MK27 → Studio MK27 (initialism)

• PiN Metal Art → Pin Metal Art (title case)

• JCK03 → JCK03 (initialism)

• NASA → NASA (acronym)

• Kitt.Ta.Khon → Kitt Ta Khon (remove unspoken punctuation)

• NAZARENO/LICHAUCO → Nazareno/Lichauco (title case, keep punctuation where it separates individual names)

• DESIGN HOTELS™ → Design Hotels (title case + remove trademark symbol as it is unspoken)

Captions should read as teasers, conveying the gist of the story in short form since readers are likely to read the captions before they commit to reading the text.

Our photography style is specific and has some general rules:

• Avoid night shots

• For interiors or architectural stories, avoid pictures with people in them unless they are pertinent to the story

• Avoid distorted and overly wide angles

• Avoid corner angles; we prefer front-on images where possible

• Avoid more than one image of the same perspective or detail so that each image adds to the story

• With vertical images, we try to contrast a tight-crop detail next to a wider spatial shot

• With horizontals, avoid details and aim for wider spatial shots