As Iranians face a political crisis, it is a propitious time to celebrate an extraordinary design magazine published in Tehran, titled Neshan. Its stated goal is “ameliorating ties between the graphic designers of Iran, Asia and all parts of the world.” In so doing, its editors have reached out to many of us in the west for contributions. During this Iranian electoral season, and prior to the unsettling results, Neshan published an issue devoted to politics. Articles include an overview of political design in Iran, from which this is an excerpt:
With the publication of newspapers and magazines, political graphicswere also born in Iran. . . After several years, political graphics in Iran found a newniche in the 1950s. Certainly, the special circumstances of thatperiod affected this rebirth; the presence of leftist and rightistparties and enthusiasts of political ideologies, the supporters andopponents of the nationalized oil industry, the Shah’s opponents, etc.The walls, posters, advertisements and the press displayed a new faceof Iran’s political graphics.
And the state of current political communications, from which this comes:
The favorite Iranian means of communication are words especially in theform of poetry or in the more general sense rhythmic words even in themost day to day and popular grounds of communication. By the same tokenon walls too, as the most conventional and accessible ‘surface’ fortransfer of message, words and writings appear almost exclusively withrare imagery mostly in the least functional form (i.e. faces ofelection candidates). Besides the many fundamental social andhistorical factors, this inherent reason has played a significant rolein limiting the domain, effect and extent of political graphics, whichis inevitably and by definition mainly visual.
Read these stories and view other issues of Neshan (covers below) here. Our hearts go out to the Iranian people at this critical juncture.