Neshan 36

Two concepts underlie the modern subject of non-Western design and differentiation. What do we mean by non-Western graphic design? In this analysis, graphic design is considered within the span of the past one hundred years — during the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of machines, the economic boom, the discovery of the unknown lands of print, radio, and television, vast communications throughout the world via the media, and finally the appearance of computers, the explosion of information and messages. The meaning of West must also be cl... > more

Categories such as Western, Non-Western, Eastern, Primitive, Modern, and Postmodern art are based on assumptions that there are intrinsic qualities to “Western” or “Non-Western” art that determine their unbreakable identity. But such interpretive practices in which an artwork is assigned an “essential” identity have lost relevance for understanding the complexities of artworks. Aesthetic essentialism is seen for the most part as a philosophical tendency that goes back to Aristotle, who writes: “The essence of each thing... > more

A fair-minded designer who has once experienced type design will admit that this field requires the highest degree of graphical literacy. Furthermore, competent type designers know that type designing for text is the most difficult specialty in type design. Knowledge of the form, insight on the writing traditions, legibility, and performance technique are all the prerequisites for the probable success of a typeface, not to mention the needed persistence and allocation of time. This is why more than five generations of Iranian graphic designers... > more

Karnameh: Visual Culture of Iranian Children 1950–1980 is the title of the exhibition held in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art from May 25 to August 15, 2016 curated by Ali Bakhtiari, Peyman Pourhossein, and Yashar Samimi Mofakham. Displaying more than two thousand visual documents in addition to publishing them in the form of a book, the exhibition portrays the process of growth, increasing importance and influence of sociopolitical affairs on visual products, cultural material, and general taste of Iranian children... > more

Arabic typography amongst other non-Latin scripts has gained tremendous attention during the past few years. Recently, it has perhaps experienced the fastest evolutional period of its long existence in the region (the Middle East). However, its evolution has not just been restricted to the Arab World. Rather, it has expanded globally, infused with characteristics of other scripts and influencing them as well. There have been numerous match-making (Latin/Arabic) projects that attempted to bring together these two (Latin and Arabic) fundamentall... > more

Designer, director, photographer, artist. Which one do you prefer over the others? Is there any link between these four professions in your works? I have been involved in commissioned works as a: graphic designer, advertising art director, advertising film director, brand consultant, photographer, television commercial film director, space designer, and men’s clothing designer. Personally, I have been involved in contemporary art (photography, installation, etc.). None of these titles tops the others. Different roles and mediums ... > more

Kazumasa Nagai, Kiyoshi Awazu, Ikko Tanaka, Mitsuo Katsui and Shigeo Fukuda were the idealistic pioneers of Japanese postwar design. Together they created many of the organizations that legitimized and ruled the profession until 1970. In 1947, millions of Japanese were on the brink of starvation. Every individual was allowed one small sardine every four days and the daily ration of rice per person was 297 grams—barely enough to fill a medium-sized cup. In the United States, the visual symbols of other nations have always been seen as exotic... > more

Abbas Kiarostami, the most world-renowned Iranian filmmaker, painter, writer, director, film editor, poet, photographer, and graphic designer was born on June 2nd, 1940 in Tehran. He passed away on July 4th, 2016 — thirteen days after his seventy-sixth birthday and in the midst of several unfinished works. We were together in February 2016 when he mentioned he would be going to the hospital for an operation. Abbas wanted to make a plan for his remaining works, should something happen. Since I had made In Praise of Being ... > more

“So near, so far: Five decades of title sequence design in Iran” was the title of an article by Ramin Sheykhani published in the 17th issue of Neshan in the summer of 2008. Throughout the course of an exhibition called Karnameh: Visual culture of Iranian children 1950-1980 held in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, a number of films and animations produced by the Ministry of Art and Culture and the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults were screened, some for the very first time and others after five decad... > more

“What makes me African and what does it look like?” To answer this question, Garth Walker began designing a magazine with his collection of South African vernacular design and photography. The magazine, ijusi, began shortly after the birth of the New South Africa in 1995 as something to occupy his time while he waited for non-existent clients after setting up his agency Orange Juice Design in Durban. Garth explains, “The idea started in ’94 but the first issue came out in ’95. Simply, I had no clients (at OJ) and lots of time. So I decided... > more