Dezeen, the global online design and architecture magazine which was acquired in March by Danish media group JP/Politikens Hus, was started with an investment of $20 - $10 for the domain name and $10 for the WordPress licence.
In 2006, founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs suddenly found himself with time on his hands having been fired from his previous job, so he set up Dezeen (‘De’ was shorthand for ‘design’ and ‘zeen’ for ‘magazine’).
Marcus is the guest on our latest podcast and talks about his journey from one-man bedroom blogger in Stoke Newington to Copenhagen boardroom.
It’s a fascinating interview. I took away four lessons:
1. Grab opportunities when they present themselves: Within a few months of launching the site, Marcus headed to the States with a “mission to introduce myself”. At a garden party which he’d managed to get an invite to, he spotted Kanye West and, sensing an opportunity, headed over to introduce himself. One thing led to another, and a few weeks later, exclusive pictures of West’s redesigned Manhattan apartment gave Dezeen its first viral story.
2. Have a moral compass: Marcus is a passionate advocate for professional journalism and believes that any journalistic endeavour must aspire to quality and integrity, even in the early days when resources are tight. Accuracy is important, trust matters and mistakes are there to be corrected.
3. Don’t change for change’s sake: Change is a given but not change without purpose. Take design for example. Being a design-led site means that Dezeen has to be beautifully designed and you might have expected there to be regular redesigns over the years, but no. If you were to put the 2021 site up against the 2007 version, the original design is still clearly recognisable. This is because the design and fonts created by Swiss typographer Micha Weidmann have stood the test of time. Despite pitches from other design agencies over the years, Micha’s design has not been bettered. So Dezeen have stuck with it.
4. Be agile, quick to market and non-sentimental: Marcus’ approach has always been ideas driven, always looking to try new things out, but not to bet the house on it – hence his use of the ‘minimum viable product’ model. Come up with an idea, work out how cheaply you can get something up, launch it and then if and when it shows promise, double down on it with real investment. Conversely, if it doesn’t work, err… kill it quick.
