Posters are still considered to be the most important format for presenting artistic and professional thoughts in graphic design and visual communication. They were printed and published during the 18th and 19th centuries as the most original and oldest form of public visual communication in city streets, and they were significant when released in large circulation. Poster visualization through lithography gradually supplanted written posters, and eventually they turned into a combination of image and writing.
Printing and publishing posters underwent great developments during the 19th and 20th centuries and became a novel visual heritage of the time. City streets turned into galleries, and walls into arenas of notification about important social, artistic, cultural and commercial matters and events. After the end of the Second World War and during the postwar restoration period, a variety of new styles emerged in poster design. Influenced by these styles, and mixed with local cultural flavors, the world of graphic design witnessed a great variety of poster samples.
In the 20th century, posters found more extensive and significant meaning as they were put to use for social, political, cultural, promotional and commercial practices. The value of artistic posters gained favor among more and more people, and a major part of graphic designing journals were allocated to poster design. Graphic designers considered it a most important professional honor to be awarded a prize related to poster design. Museums of modern arts started collecting accredited posters, and posters entered galleries and museums among other forms of visual arts.
With the expansion of the worldwide web and the virtual world, in addition to street walls, posters readily appeared on the screens of PCs, tablets and smartphones. Moreover, they broke from their previous static framework, and appeared dynamically and attractively on huge screens and billboards. Many are of the opinion that with the advent of electronic publishing, the era of wall posters will come to an end and they will become decadent, relinquishing their stance to digital screens. The frequency of traditional poster design and printing has declined to an unprecedented low – however, a strange nostalgia is felt on the streets in their absence. Now the question is whether the golden age of posters is over or not?
Iranian history of graphic design is inevitably tied to the world’s poster design. Posters represent events and developments of their contemporary period. The first political and social posters in Iran, together with public announcements, appeared during the country’s Constitutional Revolution. This giant event was considered the first great sociopolitical development in Iran, and it occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. Concurrent with the flourishing of performing arts in the Tabriz Theater and Lālezār Theater in Tehran, the posters of these first theater and cinema performances were formed to serve as the means of publicizing artistic events. A wave of art and cultural events in the 1970s gave rise to the emergence of a new wave of posters designed for cinema, theater, music, opera and cultural festivals. Later on, the Islamic Revolution, Iran-Iraq War, Restoration and Reformation periods, in three decades, further influenced poster design in Iran.
The poster of prerevolutionary Iran and its evolution after the revolution should be reviewed in connection with political and social developments of the past decades. With the betterment of economic conditions (resulting from the huge rise in Iran’s oil revenues in the 1960s and 70s), art and cultural events accelerated in an unprecedented way. The field of graphic design was introduced to two major academic centers in Tehran. Thanks to the continued efforts of Morteza Momayez, Iranian poster design emerged in a distinguished way, and readily found its proper place along with the world’s contemporary poster art. Morteza Momayez’s posters for the Tehran Film Festival and various art exhibitions were exceptional samples of combining personal experiences through image and written forms with the world’s modern techniques. Meanwhile, Ghobad Shiva and Farshid Mesghali created dozens of posters, contributing to the treasure of Iranian poster design, making it richer and richer. Illustrations and manuscripts were two shared elements that separated their posters from those of their contemporaries. They erected the strong pillars of poster design in Iran with their direct and indirect influence still felt today. The period during the 1960s and 70s was the “Golden Age of Iranian Posters.”
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran, graphic design was promptly involved the service of the revolutionary cause. For a while, revolutionary posters hit the streets — the only graphic works ornamenting city walls and reflecting the spirit of those days. But this fluctuating wave soon subsided, followed by changing social conditions, and manifested itself in another way. After the outbreak of Iran-Iraq War, a form of graphic design emerged that served the national defense cause. The war lasted eight years, throughout which there was no news of cultural events, economic activities or art festivals. Everything was at the service of national defense, and awaiting Iran’s postwar restoration and transition back to normal conditions. After reaching relative stability at the end of the war, graphic design was revived with flocks of young graduates and graphic designers entering Iran’s arena of professional design with fresh energy. These were designers who had been educated and working after the revolution and during the Iran-Iraq war, and who continued to develop their professional practice well into the digital age. More than anything else, they sought new horizons in creating images, text and typography. Designers of this period include, among others, Saed Meshki, Reza Abedini, and Bijan Sayfouri, etc. who all dedicated an important part of their professional career to poster design. Thanks to the works of these designers, Iranian posters were introduced to the world and gained international recognition.
During the 1990s, Iranian posters gained ground in international circles. Important exhibitions held in many European cities showcased posters by Iranian designers. Such events played a significant role in introducing Iranian posters to the world. It was during this period that Iranian posters were on par with well-known world styles. One international figure who helped acquaint the world to Iranian posters was Alain le Quernec. Years later, and with political and social changes during Iran’s Reformation, another group of young Iranian designers entered the world of professional design. These fresh minds overshadowed the works of their previous two generations with their contemporary, bold views. Their posters depicted both traces of their predecessors’ work as well as their own personal and unique styles. They daringly pictured everything they wanted with recalcitrance. Their works are still attractive and unparalleled. Designers like Farhad Fozouni, Pedram Harby, Iman Raad, Mehdi Saeedi, Aria Kasaei, Homa Delvaray, etc. are representatives of this group of designers.
Now if we turn to today, we see that Iranian poster design is forlorn and far away from its halcyon days. Presently, alas, we are witnessing works that, if not reviewed and studied, cannot bring any achievement for Iranian graphic design. Hopefully this era will not last long, and we may once again witness a new birth of amazing Iranian posters.