23. Magazine Documentos de Comunicación Visual. 1970
Direction and concept: Yves Zimmermann in collaboration with Toni Miserachs, Francesc Casamajó, Antonio Redondo, Ferran Cartes, Francesc Vila-Abadal and Carme Giralt
Graphic design: Yves Zimmermann and Pérez Sánchez (América Sánchez)
Production: Industrias Gráficas Francisco Casamajó
This pioneering magazine is absolutely crucial to understanding design criticism in Catalonia during the 1970s. It was published by Industrias Gráficas Francisco Casamajó, for whom Zimmermann had previously conceived the corporate identity, in addition to various publications related to their business catalogue.
Although only six issues were published, from January to September 1970, Documentos de Comunicación Visual summed up the aspirations and concerns that had captured the attention of a segment of the local design scene, those who were most attuned to international authors and trends.
In that sense, the magazine’s direct correlate can be found in Neue Grafik / New Graphic Design / Graphisme actuel, published in Zurich between 1958 and 1965 by Josef Müller-Brockmann, together with Richard Paul Lohse, Hans Neuburg and Carlo Vivarelli (LMNV). Precisely the Swiss School, also referred to as the “International Style”, and specifically the strict faction of designers from Zurich, became a major point of reference for Zimmermann, along with the productions of the Department of Visual Communication at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (1953-1968), founded by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Max Bill and Otl Aicher.
A notable feature of this publication was its openness to relevant collaborators in the field of design and other disciplines, such as Will Burtin, Alexandre Cirici, Xavier Miserachs, Ernesto García Camarero, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, David Victoroff, Salvador Giner and José Agustín Goytisolo, among others.
Finally, it is worth highlighting a different editorial project developed by Zimmermann beginning in 1979, and which picked up on some of the lines of work apparent in Documentos. We are referring to the emblematic “Colección Comunicación Visual” [Visual Communication Collection] published by Gustavo Gili, an authentic library of classics, for which seminal authors such as Tomás Maldonado, Bruno Munari, Donis A. Dondis, Otl Aicher, Adrian Frutiger and Wucius Wong were translated into Spanish for the first time.