Q&A with Typo magazine Issue 15 2005

Present Iranian typography is different from western design. What do you think is the main difference between western and Iranian typography?

I believe one of the main differences is that the smallest typographic unit in Iranian typography is “word” as opposed to the “letter” in the western typography. Therefore the Iranian designer not only considers the relationships between the words but the different possibilities and relationships among the letters within a word as well.

In some countries, graphic design has very positive feedback from the general public. In others, it doesn’t draw much attention, at all. How does the Iranian society value the work of graphic designers?
The Iranian society has historically been and still is very much a literature based society visual are in the second or ever the third position in term of communication. I would say although the designers in the past couple of decades have been making an effort in spreading the visual culture; however the lack of emphasis on this field in education has raised a generation neutral towards visuals.


The development of western graphic design is strongly influenced by technology. Today, this mainly means computers. What is your approach to the computer as a tool?
For me its like a big helping hand, as my I receive my inspirations from the contemporary life of our society & my sources are mainly my digital photos from urban surfaces & found type objects that they need to be touched & edited to be ready for work, my generation stood up & started its career in the age of computer but I used to mix the hand & the new tool together to create my design atmosphere more personal & unique.


What are the roots of your work? To what extend are you influenced by contemporary western design? Do you adjust your work to the taste of western audience?
Contemporary Iranian cultural & social life which includes all sorts of opposition, high and low, popular and elite and western and eastern ethics and global.

I am and am not. I use western design to learn from but the western design doesn’t set my aesthetic taste.

No! To be honest I don’t care if they like it or not. But I have to mention that after nine /eleven as the political aspects & the western medias grabbed world’s attention to middle east & I think it had positive & negative sides for our design in one hand every design/culture product from these part of the world praised & celebrated by western audience, in other hand as these are waves that are coming & going, the proficiency in choosing good design from poor design is getting harder & harder… this specially can be marked out while we are talking about typography (here Persian typography).

What is the role of women in contemporary Iranian design?

What is the like in the rest of professional fields; women are becoming more active in the field of design as well. However unfortunately their voices are not as much heard because of the male oriented society in which we live in. I have to mention as women have powerful participation in illustration field that most of the design studios are directed by men.


Thanks to Nazgol Ansarinia for Editing my answers!
Follow the link & you see (or download) the PDF vesrion of the 15th issue of typo magazine including Reza Abedini's lecture on persian type & typography...