Stylogenyin the style of Iranian Modernist Graphic Design

Rational modernism · 1960–present · Middle East & North Africa

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design

Also known as Iranian graphic design, Persian modernism, Tehran school of 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.

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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.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

01

How it works

  • Make Persian letterforms the protagonist: stretch, stack and interlock Nastaʿlīq or geometric Kufic until the text becomes the image.
  • Condense the message into one conceptual symbol or visual metaphor, in the manner of a cultural poster rather than an advertisement.
  • Reduce motifs from miniature painting, tilework and folk objects to flat, simplified silhouettes.
  • Anchor the composition on a strong vertical or central axis, often heavy black against a light or earthy ground.
  • In typographic posters, layer photography with calligraphic texture but keep the palette restricted.

Tehran, Iran

02

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
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Gloss & highlights, Chrome & 3D render, Fluorescent & neon, Found & vernacular imagery, Ornamented display, Cards & bento tiles

Palette

  • #efe6d2
  • #1a1a1a
  • #b0322a
  • #1d6f8a
  • #c49a3a

Typefaces

  • Nastaʿlīq

  • Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq

  • Naskh

  • Bannāʾī

    square Kufic

  • Hand-drawn geometric Persian display lettering

Known for

  • Morteza Momayez

    posters, logos and book covers; first Iranian member of AGI

  • Farshid Mesghali

    head of the Kanoon graphic studio in the 1970s; Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration, 1974

  • Ghobad Shiva

  • Guity Novin

    material for the first Tehran International Film Festival

  • Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults

    Kanoon

  • Shiraz Arts Festival posters

    1967–1977

  • Reza Abedini

    typographic posters, 1990s onwards

03

Make something in this style

Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.

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04

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

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleIranian Modernist Graphic Design1960–present · Middle East & North Africa

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

05

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

06

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Graphic Arts' (https://iranicaonline.org/articles/graphic-arts)
  2. Grapheine, 'Graphic design in Iran: Persian heritage and modernity' (https://www.grapheine.com/en/graphic-design-en/graphic-design-in-iran-persian-heritage-and-modernity)
  3. Print, 'A New Book Shares the Artistic Odyssey of Iranian Designer Farshid Mesghali' (https://www.printmag.com/international-design/book-shares-artistic-work-of-iranian-designer-farshid-mesghali/)

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