Tag archives: Design Times

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Mark Rosenberg was flipping through Wallpaper magazine when he saw a feature on newspaper design. It was sometime in 2004 and he had just getting started in the ad biz, with a background in the arts. Rosenberg went home and designed his first newspaper. It was called Design Times. He was 20.

Rosenberg knew that students with a design interest could hardly afford the international design glossies imported into the country. He also struggled to find design orientated publications that spoke to him as a consumer. With this in mind the first print run of Design Times would sell at R2 a copy. He printed 500 four pagers and was selling ads at R500 a pop. It just covered his production costs. He sold his first ad to a reseller of Adobe and Apple products.

Overheads were low – he was staying with his folks and putting the newspaper out from his bedroom – with only a limited amount of exposure to the publishing business (the agency he was working for had a travel client and was producing their in-house magazine).

Initially Design Times, which covered graphic design and photography initially, was less about content and more about layout and design admits Rosenberg but this has gradually been changing. It has also expanded its editorial coverage to touch on multiple facets of design including fashion, interior architecture and product design.