{"id":43888,"date":"2020-03-29T14:28:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T12:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/graphic-design-en\/le-design-graphique-en-iran-heritage-perse-et-modernite-loccidentale"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:00:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T09:00:03","slug":"graphic-design-in-iran-persian-heritage-and-modernity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/graphic-design-en\/graphic-design-in-iran-persian-heritage-and-modernity","title":{"rendered":"The genius of Iranian graphic design"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"History<\/h2>\n

Graphic design in Iran<\/h2>\n

A little while ago now, we started a series of articles entitled \"Graphic design around the world<\/strong>\". The idea was to take a look at other graphic design cultures, to travel to meet colleagues, to discover the history of graphic design in their countries. It is indirectly about questioning globalization, standardization and the conditions of exercise of our profession.<\/p>\n

The first country we explored was Turkey<\/a>. Today, we are taking a leap of faith to visit the genius of Iranian graphic design<\/strong>. We are talking about real genius here, for its extraordinary creative faculties, and by analogy with the genius of the lamp: endowed with great power, who only asks to be freed from his chains to shine.<\/p>\n

It is certain that the recent international tensions are not for nothing in our desire to meet Persian design. Faced with the American embargo and the terrifying idea of yet another war, it seems essential to us to go and meet the other, his culture, his history.<\/strong> And what an incredible story that is the history of Iranian art and design!<\/p>\n

We will of course add our sincere thoughts to the Iranian people, also heavily affected by the Coronavirus. May this article give them a modest reason for optimism and pride in these troubled times. For our part, we have taken great pleasure in travelling through the graphic history of their country. Thank you to all the designers who expand the boundaries, even if they are only imaginary.\u00a0<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery interval=\"3\" images=\"42728,42730,42732\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_column_text]The work of a designer<\/strong> or artist in Iran<\/strong> today cannot be understood without context. This context is that of a country that is magnificently rich in the arts<\/strong>, and so special in the world. Once a Persian Empire, Iran has been crossed and nourished by countless cultures and civilizations. It has distinguished itself around radiant artistic faculties and a distinct language. Contrary to what one might think, Iran is not an Arab country, and has more cultural affinities with India.<\/p>\n

In turn influencing the world during antiquity, open to the West in the 1960s, then reclusive during the Islamic revolution of 1979 before opening up timidly again, the country has gone through more or less dark and propitious times for visual expression<\/strong>. In spite of the bad image conveyed in the media related to current events, Iran is nonetheless a high place of artistic and graphic creation, recognized on the international scene, and full of talent.<\/p>\n

Before delving into contemporary Iranian graphic design<\/strong>, we must therefore understand its history.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n

A 3000 year old visual heritage<\/h2>\n

Brewed by conquests and civilizations that have shaped the world's largest empire and the tales of the 1001 Nights, Persia and Iran have been nourished by cultural crossbreeding to become one of the most artistically prosperous countries in the world. This can be seen in the quality and diversity of the arts that have endured over the centuries and are the foundation of our societies today. The miniatures, those minute, richly detailed paintings, Tazh\u00eeb<\/a> illuminations, poems, ceramics, enamelling, engraving and tapestry that take up traditional motifs are an integral part of Iranian culture.<\/p>\n

An article written at the end of the 1950s on the occasion of the second Tehran Biennale<\/a> boasts of the Persian heritage and its influence: \"Historians no longer ignore the fact that Romanesque sculptors in Europe were inspired by Sassanian bas-reliefs, that Chinese artists did not remain insensitive to Iranian interlacing and decorative forms, that our miniatures taught the world the perfection of lines and clarity of colour, and that our art played a role as an intermediary between artistic currents from the farthest reaches of the Eastern world to the farthest reaches of the Western world. \"[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery interval=\"3\" images=\"42734,42736,42738,42740\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_column_text]The Achaemenid Empire, the first great Persian empire and the largest empire in the ancient world, extended in the 5th century BC from Greece to Egypt to the outskirts of India and China. It was divided and segmented under Alexander the Great, then expanded again during the Sassanid Empire (around 220 AD). Its fame is such that it culturally influences and shapes the arts, architecture, culture or writing of the surrounding civilizations:<\/strong> Rome and Byzantium, Western Europe, Africa, China and India.[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery interval=\"3\" images=\"42744,42746,42748\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_column_text]Let's stop for a few seconds on Alexander the Great<\/strong><\/a>. We are in the 3rd century BC. His dream of merging the Greek and \"Eastern\" civilizations will lead to the development of the Hellenistic civilization (Cf: the Western civilization).\u00a0The role of art in Politics and Society began with him<\/strong>, and in particular with the development of portraiture<\/strong>. In order to control an empire that required several weeks of travel on horseback to cross it, Alexander entrusted artists with the task of producing innumerable representations of him, frescoes, mosaics, sculptures... and especially money. He will be the first monarch to strike coins in his effigy in his lifetime!<\/strong>\u00a0 All these representations embodied power in the physical absence of the king. Before him, gods were sculpted to embody divine power. This strategy of omniscient presence and incarnation of power will certainly facilitate the mastery of the immense territories conquered by Alexander. In contemporary terms, one could almost speak of the invention of \"branding\" or at least \"personal branding<\/strong>\" by Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n

\"money[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Portraits of Alexander have crossed the centuries, and are still today a great success with politicians, some busts still adorn the Senate Gallery in Paris for example. The image becomes a tool of power. A large part of the western visual tradition will come from Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n

Alexander the Great's dream of the union of East and West will come to an end a few centuries after his death with the arrival of the Sassanid Empire. And the eastern Persian tradition will regain its rights in Iran. But Alexander the Great still remains a hero in Iran, and the Iranians refuse to see him as a conqueror. From our point of view, 23 centuries later, it seems important to us to remember that there are bridges in history that can bring East and West closer together. Long live the bridges![\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n

Text as image<\/h2>\n

The text also has a big say in this visual baggage. When the Prophet Muhammad recites the Koran, the sacred text of Islam, a huge work of memorization through writing will be done. As Iranian researcher and graphic designer Sina Fakour explains, \"between the eighth and eighteenth centuries, before the appearance of the printing press, the number of handwritten books in countries using the Arabic alphabet was unprecedented and uncountable. Today, more than 3 million manuscript books from this period are preserved in libraries and institutes\".<\/p>\n

Based on the Koran, the Muslim religion produces a large number of miniatures depicting characters. Little by little, the representations of faces in pious texts disappear and are left empty. The words of the Koran are then used as a pretext for particularly devoted ornaments. Illumination and calligraphy thus sublimated the sacred words in the early books, with gold, ink and paper sets. So much so that the art of calligraphy is still considered to be the most accomplished of the applied arts of Islam<\/strong>, and is widely used in Iranian graphic design<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Below are some excerpts from Shahn\u00e2mah<\/a>, the Book of Kings, calligraphed by Firdaws\u00ee in 1616. Also some calligraphy excerpts from the Koran, between 1300 and 1500.[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery interval=\"5\" images=\"42751,42753,42755\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_gallery interval=\"5\" images=\"42757,42759,42761\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_column_text]In line with these traditions, the text is very often stylised even today, and is an integral part of the graphic composition. It is a major element, even supplanting the visual (whereas it is mostly the opposite in our culture). Words and images intermingle to become one, the letters become illustrations<\/strong>. One cannot grasp the meaning of Iranian graphic design without taking into account the importance of the text for this culture.<\/p>\n

Below is an overview of the calligraphic work of the Iranian designer and visual artist, Parastou Forouhar<\/a>. Born in 1962 in Iran, she has been living in Germany since 1991: her parents were murdered in Iran because they were considered opponents of the regime, and she currently lives in exile. Her work is a criticism of the Iranian government, and she also questions the notion of identity and women's rights<\/strong>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery interval=\"5\" images=\"42764,42766,42768,42770,43261\" img_size=\"large\"][vc_column_text]In this series of drawings, Forouhar composes with his art of calligraphy the names of animals in Farsi (Persian). She compares the ambiguity that surrounds the question of whether we are looking at an image or a text to the feelings of belonging and strangeness she felt when she was labelled as \"the Iranian\" by her German colleagues. The elegance and visual simplicity of the drawings beautifully capture the act of trying to communicate in another language and across cultures<\/strong>. This attempt is traced with simple things and the combination of non-verbal and written modes of communication, to convey not only meaning but also feelings.<\/p>\n

The last image is a work of meaningless letters drawn on a sacred Hindu cow, which carries these letters harmoniously, to illustrate the two great religions that are tearing Indian society apart.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n

Typography and printing<\/h2>\n

At the same time, Arabic typography -mechanical, unlike its calligraphic, manual cousin- took much longer to develop than in the West. For good reason; the Latin alphabet takes the letter as a unit, whereas it is the word as a whole that counts in Arabic and Persian writing<\/a>. Moreover, we would like to point out that the Persian (or Farsi) language<\/strong> uses the Arabic alphabet, but is not an Arabic language<\/strong>. It is spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq among others, but by three times fewer speakers than Arabic. Farsi once had its own alphabet, until the British banned its use in the 18th century. The word Farsi comes from the Persian word \/ parsi, but the letter P does not exist in the Arabic alphabet, so the word Farsi was chosen.<\/p>\n

Iran has almost always used lithography to print its texts, even in the age of printing and digital technology; that's how much the Persian language is coming up against this technology. The first to tackle Iranian typography in the aspect of letters as forms was Reza Abedini<\/strong>, to whom we devote a separate article in our History of Graphic Design<\/a> section.<\/p>\n

The first lithographic printing press arrived in Iran in 1821, just two years after the technology was introduced to the United States. By drawing on a stone, this medium allows artists to manually compose motifs, caricatures and calligraphy<\/strong> without the constraints of typography or layout, and at a lower cost than conventional printing. The first book was printed 11 years later - in lithography - and many European publications were translated in the wake, in a move towards modernisation and openness to the world. Newspapers will then use this technology.<\/p>\n