graphic design, art, typography and architecture

Well, I can’t say that I’ve given much thought to Iranian typography before - until today, that is. The Basel School of Design is hosting an exhibition of ‘50 Years of Iranian Typography‘ from today.

Professor Renner says:

We do not have to work hard to find links between the typographic arts of Iran and Switzerland.

I’m not quite sure how Prof. Renner defines “hard work”; I think you’d have to do a lot of really hard work (e.g. labour in a Soviet Gulag) to find anything but the most tenuous of links between the typographies of Switzerland and Iran. He also says:

We hope that it [the exhibition] will not hasten the “harmonization” of the two cultures, but will strengthen each in its singularity.

Am I just being cynical and/or hyper-critical or does this sound like political pandering? Anyway, the exhibition is a great opportunity to learn about Iranian typography - a subject that we would otherwise know little, if not nothing about. It’s interesting to see how typography is treated in another script. The exhibition runs until May 10. I’ll report back on it later.

Notes:
typography.ir is a great resource for the world of Iranian typography.
5thcolor.com is a great showcase of work from a number of Iranian graphic designers.

I particularly like this beautiful book cover design by Majid Abbasi: