Poster for the movie Dream of Dust, 2003
One of the most fascinating aspects of persian culture is its relationship with the written word. Since the use of image in Islamic countries is restricted, the written word filled the gap: calligraphy became so elaborated and imaginative, that it blurs the limits between words and images, readability and abstractionism.
This wonderful tradition, however, had problems fitting in the contemporary world of graphic arts. Printing, publishing and communication in Iran is as much dependent of western technologies and standards as every other country – and these technologies are not prepared to support the incredible variation and lack of repeatable patterns that make the persian language so rich.
In such a context, persian design always involved castrating calligraphy – one of the most important aspects of its culture – to fit into what the world understood as “good graphic design”. Since the 90’s, however, a new wave of iranian designers is trying to fight these inertia and build a graphic design language around the persian calligraphy.
Reza Abedini, born in 1967 and with no formal training in design, is one of the leading figures of this “revival”. His work presents an incredible mix of traditional calligraphy and contemporary sensibility. It is also strongly political, in the most deep sense of the word.
Poster for an exhibition of his work, 2001
Most of his posters present one the famous “lonesome figures”: silhouettes or heavily stylized human bodies rarely showing traces of individuality. These iconic representations of human beings are confronted with persian calligraphy in a variety of ways, always achieving astonishing visual power.
This choice can be seen as a discussion about the representation of the human body in persian culture, and a reminiscent of the portrait paintings of the Quajar period.
Another interesting aspect of Abedini’s work is the extensive production of logos and corporate identity. They usually don’t follow fibonacci rules and western proportions, but instead aim at the organic harmony of persian calligraphy and ornaments.
Those logos wouldn’t be described as “good logos” by western standards, and I feel that we would have to learn a lot about persian culture and visual harmony to be able to analyse them with greater depth. Even though, one can feel how energic and graphically rich they are.
A collection of symbols for Iranian companies
Abedini is using graphic design to help reintroduce persian visual culture into the contemporary communication scenario, and has even been awarded the Prince Claus Awards in Amsterdam by his contribution to persian and world culture. On the other hand, he is also helping to expand the language of graphic design and re-write its history, so far extremely eurocentric. As he stated in an interview, “we can all use this medium, which is graphic design. But if you want to own it, you need to add some to the current definition of graphic design.”
Further reading:
Article in the blog Retinart
Interview with Reza Abedini
Reza Abedini’s site
Mistah Kurtz, he dead 