Iranian graphic design - research

Hi Fabio!
This is Nejdeh Hovanessian from London. I am a recent postgraduate of Design Strategy & Innoavtion from Brunel University, London. I am originally an Armenian, but I was born and grown up in Iran. I have studied Industrial Design (Bachelor's) at Art University of Tehran and consequently have quite wide knowledge about Iranian design industry/community and have lots of friends working there in the field of graphic design.
My own Bachelor's dissertation was about the question of cultural identity in design and as a result, in my final project I had designed a model Iranian Kitchen considering both cultural and contemporary needs of Iranian audience.
I will be happy to be halpful in your research through my own knowledge/experience and also connections. So, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can contact me by or Skype: nejdeh.hovanessian
Regards,
Nejdeh

A high-drama suggestion from a wannabe novelist:

If you haven't gone too deep into your research yet, why not compare a designer from Iran to one from Israel--see how their cultural beliefs/differences are reflected in their designs?

A good link for the Israeli graphic design community--

http://www.designed-in-israel.com/

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

Hi Fabio,

Would you please send me your personal e-mail as I have prepared your requested information, but just found out that I have not your contact address!!!

Best regards,

Nejdeh

"It came about because of the sun, because of the wind, because of the earth" Permaculture Journal

If there is any sort of continuation of research with this piece you may also wish to check out architect Nader Khalili who just passed away this year.
http://www.calearth.org/
Bonus? He was an all 'round nice guy.

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

I didn't get any reply from you!

hi nejdeh,
i saw your reply yesterday and didn't read the complete post right away because you gave such an extended answer.. i really didn't expect it to be so much and was just about to read it today as i am working on my research.

you must know i REALLY appreciate it and i would like to ellaborate on it a bit more here on cb.

for people who are interested i will also paste the main part of the text from the mail i sent to nejdeh here...

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as i wrote i am particularly interested in the influence of the islam on graphic design, but also the role of the government and cultural history.

i live in the netherlands and our society is changing, not just the dutch society but i think also the european society. maybe you hear news about the netherlands, about 'our' political development, the discussions about religion in daily life, fear of islamic culture and so on.
as a reaction some designers are looking for the dutch identity. but what is identity, is identity changing, should it change?!

in this light it's very interesting to look at other cultures to see if there are universal values in how other cultures deal with cultural history, foreign influences et cetera!..
in iranian graphic design you see a very poetic way of communicating messages, very calligraphic with a form of modesty and very clear.. i think it's intriguing :-)

calligraphy plays an important roll in iranian history (poetry has always been a way of expressing feelings and emotions), but there is a huge difference with commercial advertising, advertisements don't show the cultural richness like graphic design does.

what is the role of graphic design in iran and are designers like reza abedini and mehdi saeedi appreciated in iran? is their work mainly for cultural clients (bookdesign, museums etc)? what about depicting faces, is there a history of this in iranian, islamic or arabic culture?
- which are the cultural backgrounds of the designers and which cultural sensitivities are they confronted with?
- which do's and don'ts in relation to their culture or background are there? are these national, regional, international?
- in what way do they deal with these sensitivities?

reading some forums looking for information i found this great documentary about islamic architecture and art.. really worth watching! :)

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8018912082115778034

Hi Fabio,

Thank you for the e-mail. The subject of your research seems very interesting and I am sure that it will be a valuable journey for you as a designer! I will be happy to be helpful throughout this journey as a person with both inside and outside perspectives. I will try to share my own thoughts, knowledge and personal experience with you. Also I will be happy to introduce you to some professional practitioners inside Iran who will be able to give you a more holistic picture of the contemporary Iranian Graphic Design.

The real picture of Iran and its people is hugely different from the now internationally accepted largely negative version created by 'western media'; i.e., 'fantasists', 'fundamentalists', 'terrorists' etc. I am telling this as a Christian born and grown up during the Islamic Revolution and eight years of imposed war by Iraq encouraged by the same forces that today are destroying Iraq!!! Although Iranians (the majority of 98%) are Muslims, but Iranian version of Islam is largely different from those in other countries (Arabs, Pakistanis, etc.). This is the main reason that during history Iranians have initiated and developed the Shiite denomination. Don't forget that centuries before the birth of Islam Iranians had one of the world's most developed, tolerate and democratic civilisations. The basis of Zaroatrianism and Manichaeism, the two genuine Iranian pre-Islamic religions, are based on tolerance towards all other faiths. So, after being defeated by the Arab invaders and accepting Islam in the first century (Islamic calendar), they have accommodated the new religion with their own cultural background/heritage. It is very interesting that even now, after 14 centuries, they have not fully accepted (digested) this national defeat and perhaps because of that (unlike most of other Islamic nations) still the national identity has big advantage over the religion. So, as a result, although originally an Armenian Christian, I am proud of my Iranian nationality too!

After the Islamic Revolution, because of the cultural shock, confusion, vacuum and religious (governmental) restrictions, and also the indirect oppositions towards the new revolutionary/Islamic rules (as it has happened elsewhere; e.g. Russian Revolution) several branches of Iranian art lived a period of re-definition that resulted in a revival and thriving creativity. The most successful of all were Graphic Design and Cinema. I believe that the vacuum and pressure resulted from the revolution and the immediate war had a major role in this transformation. The limited connection with outside world forced the designers and cinematographers to return to their own cultural roots, and to create their own graphic language while being isolated from any foreign influence.

Iranians had a huge (really huge!) input in creation and development of Islamic civilisation, science and art. In the field of arts, the most notable of these contributions has been in architecture and calligraphy. The so-called Islamic domes (e.g., mosque domes) has been originated from Iranian Sasanid architecture and developed by Iranian architects and decorators in Islamic Empire. Also, although it is commonly believed that Iranians has taken their current alphabet from Arabs (there are other theories too), but even today when comparing Arabic calligraphy with its Iranian counterpart (the same alphabet!), as a designer you will definitely see the obvious visual perfectness and also progressive tendencies in the Iranian calligraphy.

The Iranian graphic design after the Islamic revolution can be categorised under two major periods:

1. Before commercialisation; from revolution until the end of Iran-Iraq war (1979 - 1988)

2. After commercialisation; after the war (1989 - now)

After the revolution and during the eight years of war, since there was no well shaped commercial market inside Iran and economic/cultural relations with outside world was literally minimum, the major market of graphic design was for mainly revolutionary, ideological or cultural propaganda purposes and also publishing. And I think that such a condition acted as the main origin for creation of 'Iranian' style in graphic design. After the war, the condition started to change, but gradually. First, came the problem of 'embargoes' imposed by the major economic powers in the world (led by the US) which surprisingly again acted positively on Iranian industry, making them more self-sufficient. The economic market was changing, so graphic designers shifted their attention to the growing market of advertisement and hence started to work for internal commercial sector. In 90s, after some improvements in international relationship, Iranian graphic designers started to work for international/multinational companies who were entering to Iranian market.

The poetic soul of Iranian graphic design is deeply rooted in Iranian culture and I don't think that it has any major relevance to Islam and religious matters. But from calligraphic point of view I guess Islam could have a major role considering the importance of Koran and Koranic manuscripts in the religion. But as mentioned earlier again there are major differences in Iranian-Islamic calligraphy with non-Iranians ones.

Hence, I believe that your mentioned cultural richness of Iranian graphic design is the direct result of the cultural revival in recent history and also the cultural, political and economical developments in Iran in the last three decades, 'some' of which have Islamic roots.

Graphic designers have a dominant role in Iranian cultural scene and have gained a quite respectful position in Iranian intelligence circles. For example, I can point to Morteza Momayez, nationally known as the father of graphic design in Iran, who passed away couple of years ago. Usually, by tradition, such prominent faces are nationally known as 'ostad' which means 'guru' in Farsi (Persian).

Today, as a result of recent economic and cultural developments, the activity of graphic designers and their design firms (consultancies) are not only limited to cultural fields; such as museums, cultural festivals, books, magazines etc. In fact, they are growing more and more like their European/western counterparts, active in commercial fields and working for multinational companies active in Iran and also Persian Gulf region; such as Sony, Braun, BMW etc.

Regarding 'historic depicting faces', I am afraid that you can't find any specific 'graphic designer' (in today's terms) until the most recent history of Iran, as the idea of graphic design has been imported from the west. But Iranian art history has quite large number of famous calligraphists and miniature artists (book/manuscript designers). Some of them had a very interesting cooperation with architects and especially 'kashi' (tile making) industry.

Currently graphic design is one of the most prestigious and fashionable professions in Iran. There are several national and international related events such as biennials, competitions etc. during a year, mainly in Tehran, the capital. There is a very successful professional society working in Tehran on national level: IGDS member of ICOGRADA.

The official emblem of Islamic Republic of Iran which demonstrate a stylised version of the word 'Allah' - designed by Hamid Nadimi - is one of the first samples of graphic design after the revolution.

I am adding some online sources that I think would be useful for you:

http://www.momayez.ir/

http://www.graphiciran.com/

http://www.irancartoon.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Coat_of_arms_of_Iran.svg

I hope this information will be useful for you. Please do not hesitate to ask for any missing point or any other information as I think this was just the beginning of story. ;)

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Nejdeh

hi nejdeh,

sorry for my late reply (again).. i'm in the middle of finishing my presentation for tomorrow and it's too much work, haha!

too bad, because i almost forget the beautiful side of it all now.. your contribution really helped me out!!

for now i have to get back to my presentation.. i will let you know what the teacher thinks of my work.

Hi Fabio,

Any news from your presentation? Hope everything has gone smoothly...

WOW, I have to say Im pretty facsinated with Islamic Art. I like doing Contempoary Islamic Art.... so thanks for posting the videos and links.. :) I really enjoyed them.

I hope your presentation is AWESOME! :)

SARAH HAFEEZ.

www.graphiciran
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