Style combination · Pairs well

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design × Persian Popular Narrative

Farshid Mesghali collaged coloured clippings of Qajar lithograph illustrations for a poster for the Tehran International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults (dated November 1967 by Marzolph); crop and enlarge a hatched lithograph figure inside a modernist, white-ground layout.

From the research on Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

Mix them and make something Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Persian Popular Narrative

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Persian Popular Narrative, their arrangement from Persian Popular Narrative, the finish from Persian Popular Narrative. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

Type from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design: Brush & pen calligraphy
Hand-lettering
Colour from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design: Limited spot colours
Earth & mineral
Form from Persian Popular Narrative: Stylised figuration
Borders & frames
Composition from Persian Popular Narrative: Framed panels
Horror vacui
Surface from Persian Popular Narrative: Painterly brushwork

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Iranian Modernist Graphic Design

Light

Rakkas, standing in for Nastaʿlīq

Text · Persian Popular Narrative

Iran's popular picture-stories in two media. From 1843, lithographed books printed handwritten Nastaʿlīq verse and pen drawings in one process: framed scenes in ruled text columns, hatched and dotted. Mirza Ali-Qoli Khoi, the most prolific illustrator, drew over 2,000 scenes for epics, romances and Karbala martyrologies in 1846–55. From the 20th century Hossein Qollar-Aqasi, Mohammad Modabber and pupils, heirs to storytellers' screens (pardeh) and taʿziyeh, painted epic and Karbala cycles on canvases for coffeehouses where storytellers performed, each figure named, into the 2010s.

Archivo; Persian Popular Narrative used Nastaʿlīq written by the lithographic scribes (kātebs), for verse and prose and Naskh, used for the Qur'an and some lithographed texts

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design, with a counter-accent from Persian Popular Narrative. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

#efe6d2 ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#c49a3a accent · 18%
#b0322a accent · 14%
#1d6f8a accent · 10%
#2f7a4a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe6d2;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #c49a3a;
  --accent-2: #b0322a;
  --accent-3: #1d6f8a;
  --accent-4: #2f7a4a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting): Many of these images depict Imam Husayn, his family and the martyrs of Karbala, whose mourning is at the heart of Shiʿa devotion, and coffeehouse paintings of Karbala still hang in tekyehs and are shown during Muharram; some lithographs also depict the Prophet Muhammad, which many Muslims consider forbidden. The lithographers often veiled the faces of the Prophet, ʿAli and Husayn or ringed a holy face with a halo, so keep that convention and never supply a face for the Prophet, ʿAli or Husayn. Do not use these figures as decoration, parody or throwaway packaging, and have any Persian or Arabic text, including names of God, the Prophet and the Imams, read by a fluent reader. Coffeehouse paintings are the work of named painters and their pupils, so credit them, and commission Iranian painters and calligraphers rather than tracing their work.

The two styles

Large black Persian calligraphy fills a cream, lightly textured poster, with a golden three-leaf sprout rising in front of a red sun. A blue, rippling reflection tapers downward beneath the lettering.

1960–present · Middle East & North Africa Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Iranian graphic design came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. Morteza Momayez, Farshid Mesghali, Ghobad Shiva and Guity Novin worked for magazines, the Kanoon children's institute and film and arts festivals, and built a modern visual language from Persian calligraphy, miniature and folk imagery and the conceptual poster of the Polish school. From the 1990s Reza Abedini's generation made Persian letterforms themselves into dense, architectural poster compositions. 1843–2012 · Middle East & North Africa Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting) Iran's popular picture-stories in two media. From 1843, lithographed books printed handwritten Nastaʿlīq verse and pen drawings in one process: framed scenes in ruled text columns, hatched and dotted. Mirza Ali-Qoli Khoi, the most prolific illustrator, drew over 2,000 scenes for epics, romances and Karbala martyrologies in 1846–55. From the 20th century Hossein Qollar-Aqasi, Mohammad Modabber and pupils, heirs to storytellers' screens (pardeh) and taʿziyeh, painted epic and Karbala cycles on canvases for coffeehouses where storytellers performed, each figure named, into the 2010s.