Rational modernism · 1965–1979 · Middle East & North Africa
Kanoon Children's Book Illustration (Iran, 1965 to 1979)
Also known as Kanun picture books, Iranian modernist children's book art, Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults illustration
Picture books made at Tehran's Kanoon institute by Farshid Mesghali, Ali Akbar Sadeghi and others: simplified, flat-colour, graphic narrative art drawing on Iranian visual culture, within the Tehran modernist school (hence persian-modernism). Context: state-court-linked patronage; The Little Black Fish was read as political allegory and banned before 1979; legacy contested since. Persian lettering is Iranian hands' work, not a motif to borrow.
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01
How it works
- Reduce every character to a bold, simplified silhouette that a child can read at a glance.
- Fill shapes with flat, saturated colour and carry texture through pattern rather than shading.
- Draw on local Iranian visual culture (coffeehouse painting, Persian ornament) rather than imported Western picture-book conventions.
- Let hand-drawn Persian lettering sit inside the picture as part of the composition.
- Vary scale and placement across spreads so each page turn offers a fresh, playful composition.
Tehran, Iran: the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), founded 8 January 1965 with Lily Amir-Arjomand and under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, who chaired its board of trustees. The style period runs to the 1979 Revolution; the institute itself continues today.
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Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Colour
- Form & shape
- Surface & texture
- Imagery
- Medium & production
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Straight photography, Gloss & highlights, Skeuomorphic material, Fluorescent & neon, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Modular grid, Ornament-free, Illusion of depth
Palette
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Typefaces
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Hand-drawn Persian lettering, often integral to the image
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Hand-lettered title forms
Known for
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Farshid Mesghali
illustrations for Samad Behrangi's The Little Black Fish, 1967/68; First Graphic Prize at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, 1969; Hans Christian Andersen Award, 1974
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Farshid Mesghali
picture books of 1970 including Jamshid Shah and Amu Nowruz
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Ali Akbar Sadeghi
picture books such as Malek ol-Khorshid; Kanoon animation
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Noureddin Zarrinkelk
illustration and animation for Kanoon
03
Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Kanoon Children's Book Illustration (Iran, 1965 to 1979)’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
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Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
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- Pardhan Gond Painting (Jangarh Kalam) 75% alike
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Often taken for
Kanoon Children's Book Illustration has no real works recorded yet, so these are its nearest styles by its choices alone, with the choices that tell them apart.
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Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design
2 of Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design’s 5 real works fit Kanoon Children's Book Illustration’s choices better than their own: Alifbaʾiyyat Filastin, cover and al-Balah al-ahmar.
Choices that tell Kanoon Children's Book Illustration and Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book apart Choice Kanoon Children's Book Illustration Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book Full polychrome defining occasional Limited spot colours — defining Pattern & repeat characteristic — Painterly brushwork — characteristic Dynamic asymmetry characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Pardhan Gond Painting (Jangarh Kalam)
Pardhan Gond Painting is one of Kanoon Children's Book Illustration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Kanoon Children's Book Illustration and Pardhan Gond Painting apart Choice Kanoon Children's Book Illustration Pardhan Gond Painting Sequential narrative defining occasional Isolated object occasional defining Hand-lettering defining occasional Repetition & rhythm occasional defining Dynamic asymmetry characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Mithila (Madhubani) Painting
Mithila Painting is one of Kanoon Children's Book Illustration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Kanoon Children's Book Illustration and Mithila Painting apart Choice Kanoon Children's Book Illustration Mithila Painting Sequential narrative defining occasional Abundant decoration — defining Hand-lettering defining occasional Horror vacui — defining Dynamic asymmetry characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Kultur-Lige & Yiddish Avant-Garde Book Design
Kultur-Lige & Yiddish Avant-Garde Book Design is one of Kanoon Children's Book Illustration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Kanoon Children's Book Illustration and Kultur-Lige apart Choice Kanoon Children's Book Illustration Kultur-Lige Biomorphic curves characteristic — Limited spot colours — characteristic Pattern & repeat characteristic — Monochrome — characteristic Measured density characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
— means the choice isn’t among the style’s recorded choices. Critics recorded each work’s choices with the styles’ descriptions in view, so this shows whether the descriptions hold together, not proof that they are right.
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Combine it with
Styles Kanoon Children's Book Illustration (Iran, 1965 to 1979) pairs well with or plays against, from the research. Each is worked out as a combination: which style gives the type, the colours and the forms.
- Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting) Pairs well · A possible visual kinship in framed compartments and ornament; not established by the cited sources.
- Polish Information Picture Book (Dwie Siostry) Contrasts · Dense, diagrammatic and all-over (and dated 2008 onward) where Kanoon is lyrical and narrative.
- Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book Pairs well · A loose parallel, not an influence: flat colour and a bold figure-led picture-book sequence.
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Sources
- https://www.bidoun.org/articles/institute-for-the-intellectual-development-of-children-young-adults
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_the_Intellectual_Development_of_Children_and_Young_Adults
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farshid_Mesghali
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Black_Fish
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