DOT ZERO 5
Robert Malone [Editor], Massimo Vignelli [Designer]
Robert Malone [Editor], Massimo Vignelli [Designer]: DOT ZERO 5. New York: Dot Zero / Finch Pruyn, Fall 1968. First edition. Thick perfect bound and saddle-stitched wrappers. 48 pp. Illustrated articles. Elaborate graphic design throughout. Faint wear overall, including a tiny closed tear to the front fore edge. A nearly fine copy of the final—and scarcest—issue of Dot Zero.
9 x 12 perfect-bound magazine with 48 pages of editorial content dedicated to the symposium “Transportation Graphics: Where am I Going? How do I Get There?” held at the Museum of Modern Art on October 23, 1967.
“There was reallly no model, for either of content or design. I wanted to design a magazine with one type size in only two weights, a grid, and one color, just black and white. We wanted something visually exciting, but not visually spectacular. Perhaps one sort of model was Neue Grafik Design, the Swiss magazine from the early sixties. It was also black and white only.” — Massimo Vignelli
Dot Zero was an interesting publishing experiment that was about fifteen years ahead of its time. Sponsored and underwritten by a paper company, it paired Robert Malone's editorial sense with Massimo Vignelli's aesthetic sensibilities in a journal that has never been replicated. Dot Zero made a real attempt to address design issues in the environmental context.
Back in 1966, the medium truly was the massage. Only in the pages of Dot Zero could inquiring minds find articles about computer graphics, corporate identity, paperbacks as a mass medium and environmental management. A very stimulating publication that only lasted five issues.
From Kevin Rau's excellent website devoted to the history of Unimark: ... Dot Zero was one of the most unique, though short-lived, of Unimark's undertakings...the magazine was aimed at architects, planners and engineers as well as graphic designers... Articles on design theory, concrete poetry and manipulated images appeared regularly. With a circulation of about 18,000, Dot Zero was sponsored by Finch Pruyn, a paper manufacturer based in Glen Falls, NY. After only five issues, Finch decided to pull financial support and production was halted.
Dot Zero 5 [1968] contents:
- Editorial
- Introduction By George Nelson, Chairman of the Symposium
- Lowell K. Birdwell: Federal Highway Administrator
- Jock Kinneir: Head of the Department of Communication at the Royal College of Art
- Pierre Bourgeau: Montreal Metro architect
- Henry A. Barnes: Commissioner, Department of Traffic, New York City
- Will Burtin: Street Communications
- Jonathan Barnett: Principal Urban Designer for the New York City Planning Department
- Donald Appleyard: Associate Professor of Urban Design at the College of Environmental DEsign, University of CAlifornia, Berkeley.
- Peter Chermayeff: Design Standards for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority [MBTA]
- Bob Noorda: Design Standards for the Metropolitan Milanese
- Charles M. Haar: Assistant Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Harmon H. Goldstone: Commissioner, New York City Planning Commission
- Daniel T. Scannell: Member of the New York City Transit Authority
"Dot Zero was the house organ of Unimark, the firm that Massimo Vignelli cofounded with Ralph Eckerstrom, Wally Gutches, Larry Klein, Bob Noorda, Jim Fogelman and Bob Moldavsky in 1965. The prototypical corporate design consultancy, Unimark created identities and graphic programs for American Airlines, Memorex, Target, and the New York Subway System that are still in use today. In its attempt to reconcile what was widely considered an intuitive, artistic process with rigorous methodologies and a dedication to sophisticated marketing practices, Unimark in many ways anticipated the current interest in design thinking in business circles, and expanded the debate on the relationship of good design and good business that continues to this day.
”In this context, Dot Zero is especially remarkable. Intended as a quarterly, it published only five issues between 1966 and 1968 as a joint promotional venture with paper company Finch, Pryun. In terms of content, it was remarkably ambitious. Its editor, Robert Malone, described its mission in its inaugural issue: "It will deal with the theory and practice of visual communication from varied points of reference, breaking down constantly what used to be thought of as barriers and are now seen to be points of contact." The list of contributors was astonishing for its time, and the topics it covered (new technologies, transportation graphics, semiotics) were not addressed in the mainstream design press then, and indeed in some cases would not be discussed elsewhere in such depth for decades.
”Massimo Vignelli was Dot Zero's designer and creative director. Examining the five issues over forty years later, his passion for the project is still evident. Set in two weights of Helvetica (Unimark's signature typeface) and printed on white uncoated paper almost exclusively in black and white, the design of Dot Zero stood out in stark relief to the kinds of self-promotion that dominated the profession in those days, and would be equally distinctive today.” — Michael Beirut
Massimo Vignelli recalls the exact day that he found the design language that he would be known for. It was 1963, he had a studio in Milan, Lella & Massimo Vignelli Design & Architecture, where he designed in a reductive manner using Helvetica, black rules, and solid colored backgrounds. He put this into practice for Sansoni designing formats for scores of series and hundreds of books until leaving Italy for American in 1965. Today he uses more Bodoni, but hasn’t changed his basic design attitude one iota. He made his early reputation by designing strict formats for series like these.
"I always worked like this from the very beginning, I never had another way but this structural approach," admits Vignelli proudly. "My aim was always to reach maximum impact, so I used Helvetica on white or solid color backgrounds, which stood out — boom — from the texture of all the other books on the shelves. I designed many series this way, I had some books with only white covers with type raining down and some with a black and white illustration on bottom. We wanted to develop standards to avoid gratuitous criticism by publisher’s wives or secretaries and sales people. First and foremost we were searching for objectivity. So we convinced the publisher that a book was like a soap box. The publisher’s brand was the important thing, so each book looked alike. We played safe with the illustration by using things from the past. Who could argue with Rembrandt and Durer?"