Exhibition poster by Reza Abedini
POSTERAM! - posters by Reza Abedini
A little over a month ago, on December 13th 2006, Reza Abedini received the main Prince Claus Award out of the hands of His Royal Highness, prince Friso. The Prince Claus Fund awards prizes annually to persons and institutions that give a modern day reflection to culture and development. Reza received the main prize "as a recognition of his creativity while producing extraordinary graphic design"and for "the personal way in which he applies knowledge and achievements of the artistic heritage of Iran and makes them new and fascinating all over again".
Reza Abedini (b. 1967) is currently one of Iran's most innovative and well known graphic designers. He works mostly with cultural commissions and has created many inspiring posters, books and magazines. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and the driving force behind the organisation of the Iranian Festival for Graphic Design, that is held in Tehran every two years. Since 1998 he lectures graphic design and image-culture at the university of Tehran.
Looking at his posters it is obvious that Reza has great respect for the Persian cultural tradition. He uses historical Persian calligraphy and centuries old traditional images to create his own modern typography. This is actually what characterizes Abedini's work.The words in his posters look calligraphed, handwritten, but they are made by computer. His work is not political.
Last year he wrote the book "New Visual Culture of Iran", together with the Dutch designer Hans Wolbers. The book shows the image-culture of modern-day Iran. Different disciplines have inspired eachother creating the present, unique Iranian image-culture that is relatively un-influenced by other styles and ideas from the rest of the world, even though the internet is widely available in Iran. One can also see that the continuing presence of Islam has it's impact on present day design, just like the presence of Christianity has always influenced western art.
