# Iranian Revolutionary & Sacred Defence Poster

> Posters, murals and stamps of the 1978–79 Iranian Revolution and the 1980–88 war with Iraq, which fused the red-white-black international revolutionary poster with Persian miniature and coffeehouse narrative painting. Shiʿa martyrdom imagery (red tulips from martyrs' blood, Karbala, white shrouds) and calligraphed slogans, Qur'anic verses and the shahada carry the message, and the same image moves between postage stamp, poster and multi-storey wall.

- Period: 1978–1988
- Where: Middle East & North Africa
- Origin: Tehran and other Iranian cities: revolutionary factions in 1978–80, then the cultural and propaganda bodies of the Islamic Republic during the Iran–Iraq War
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Islamic Revolution posters, Sacred Defence (Defāʿ-e Moqaddas) posters, Iran–Iraq War posters, Tehran martyr murals
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/iranian-revolutionary-poster/

## Use it with care

This tradition is built on sacred text and devotional imagery: Qur'anic verses, the shahada, the names of God, the Prophet's family and Imam Husayn, and the Karbala martyrdom narrative at the heart of Shiʿa mourning practice. Never use the calligraphy or martyr imagery as decorative texture, never crop or distort sacred text, and do not imitate Arabic-script lettering without a fluent reader. Martyr portraits show real people, and the posters are also state propaganda of a government still in power, so cite them as historical sources rather than a neutral look, and work with Iranian calligraphers and designers.

## How it works

- Combine the revolutionary poster's single red-white-black idea with miniature-style narrative scenes in richer colour.
- Encode sacrifice through the Karbala lexicon: red tulips, white shrouds, Imam Husayn's standard, a rising red sun.
- Let calligraphy carry slogans and verses, and shape it into fists, flames or flags when the word must become the image.
- Use colour symbolically: red for blood and victory, green for Islam, black for mourning.
- Design each image to scale from postage stamp to poster to building-high mural.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (defining)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining)
- [Straight photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/straight-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (characteristic)

### Medium & production
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (defining)
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (characteristic)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (defining)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)

Avoids: Ironic & self-aware, Playful & witty, Ornament-free, Pastel, Fluorescent & neon, Gloss & highlights, Found & vernacular imagery

Palette: #b31b1b, #1e7b45, #151515, #f2eee4, #c9a03c, #3a7ca5

Typefaces: Nastaʿlīq (Persian slogans and poetry), Thuluth and Naskh (Qur'anic verses and the shahada), Hand-drawn heavy Persian display lettering for slogans

Known for: Kazem Chalipa, Iṯār (Altruism), a mural adapted as a poster and a postage stamp; Kazem Chalipa, The Guards of the Anemone Fields (Iran–Iraq War poster); Kazem Chalipa, depiction of the Black Friday massacre at Zhaleh Square, Tehran (8 September 1978); Mojahedin-e Khalq May Day poster of a worker breaking his chains (c. 1979–81); Ministry of Islamic Guidance poster showing the United Nations as a foot; Peter Chelkowski's poster collection, published in Staging a Revolution (with Hamid Dabashi, 1999)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/socialist-realism.md) (1932–1989)
- Influenced by: [Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cuban-poster.md) (1960–1990)
- Influenced by: [Iranian Modernist Graphic Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-modernism.md) (1960–present)
- Influenced by: [Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/islamic-geometric.md) (c. 690–present)
- Influenced by: [Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-miniature.md) (c. 1300–1700)
- Alike in its design choices: [Lebanese Civil War Party Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lebanese-civil-war-poster.md) (1975–1990), 78% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Palestinian Resistance Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/palestinian-resistance-poster.md) (1965–1993), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ethiopian Revolutionary Poster (Derg Era)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ethiopian-revolutionary-poster.md) (1974–1991), 74% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Afrobeat Sleeve Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/afrobeat-sleeve-art.md) (1974–present), 69% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Italian Fascist Graphics (Romanità & Exhibition Photomontage)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/italian-fascist-graphics.md) (1921–1943), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Senegalese Sufi Devotional Imagery (Souwère Glass Painting and Amadou Bamba Portraits)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/senegalese-sufi-imagery.md) (1900–present), 64% alike

## Real works

- [Khomeini above the revolutionary crowds (poster)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1192824/): Hasan Isma'ilzadeh, 1979, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- [Three books and revolutionary slogans (Azadi)](https://media.hal.science/medihal-01791217v1): Hossein Norouzian, painting signed and dated 7 Dey 1357 (28 December 1978); sheet printed in 1979 or later (its recto carries a Norouzian painting dated 9 May 1979), Fonds Christian Bromberger, Phonothèque de la MMSH, Aix-en-Provence (via MédiHAL, CNRS); original at La Contemporaine, Nanterre
- [Dove with a tulip under the emblem of the Islamic Republic (22 Bahman anniversary)](https://media.hal.science/medihal-01792062v1): Isfahan ceremonies headquarters (publisher); designer unknown, 1981, Fonds Christian Bromberger, Phonothèque de la MMSH, Aix-en-Provence (via MédiHAL, CNRS); original at La Contemporaine, Nanterre
- [The Imam Has Come (Emam amad): poster for the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution](https://media.hal.science/medihal-01784267v1): Ministry of Islamic Guidance (Vezarat-e Ershad-e Eslami), Iran (named under the state emblem); designer unknown, 1983, Fonds Christian Bromberger, Phonothèque de la MMSH, Aix-en-Provence (via MédiHAL, CNRS); original at La Contemporaine, Nanterre

## Sources

- Peter Chelkowski & Hamid Dabashi, Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran (NYU Press, 1999)
- Mehdi Abedi & Michael M. J. Fischer, 'Revolutionary Posters and Cultural Signs', Middle East Report (MERIP), July 1989
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Graphic Arts ii. In the 1978–79 Revolution and Iran–Iraq War' (iranicaonline.org)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Iranian Revolutionary & Sacred Defence Poster”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/iranian-revolutionary-poster/