Zone was the catalyst for the birth of the Bruce Mau Design studio, where we first developed narrative design tools we still use today (learning to design not just the look, but the story of every product), and began lasting relationships with cultural visionaries through our collaboration on a series of paradigm-shifting books. 

Our first project with Zone Books was the groundbreaking volume Zone 1/2, a multi-perspective embodiment of the contemporary city. For the next two decades, BMD was involved in every broad vision and granular detail of over 100 books. The impact of our design on the actual content of the books was acknowledged by the publisher, who included us as an author on the spines of early volumes.

From a marketing standpoint, the publisher’s persona became such a distinctive identity that entire sections of Zone books would be grouped together in stores, focusing brand penetration into the consciousness of readers. Conceived as post-cinematic objects, the books as a thematic whole became powerful in their allure as instigators of a cultural movement.