"A woman who grew up in Syria and a man with Persian roots walk into CalArts. Jump ahead six years: They’re now passionately united in their goal to inspire a widespread design movement."
"Each are from opposing sides of a region that’s long been ripped apart by religious fanaticism and deadly political power struggles. But together they developed a concept they now apply to their design called “the third space.”
And their first step in spreading their concept and achieving their goal is having curated a new Los Angeles gallery show that just opened, titled Local Not Local. They’ve united a group of Iranian and Arabic designers under one roof, with the Arabic alphabet as their commonality. The exhibition includes local and Middle East client work as well as self-initiated projects."
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| Pouya Jahanshahi: Persian Beauty, 2011. “Perhaps amongst all artifacts, the Persian carpet best signifies the Persian culture, a symbol of timeless value, and a work of art that exudes beauty and elegance. This poster is built to resemble a carpet frame, with threads that weave the central typographic form of the word ‘Gileem,’ which means Persian rug. It’s a metaphorical reference to the the hybrid culture that exists amongst Iranian diaspora: Western forms and Latin words are mixed with Persian writing to communicate the content. Bringing forth a pragmatic dimension, a street map identifies prominent carpet stores in Tehrangeles.” |
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| Pouya Jahanshahi: Teherangeles, 2011. “Tehrangeles is a neighborhood of West Los Angeles. It’s home to the largest community of Iranian Diaspora. Here, the metaphorical form of a Persian carpet – as a map – celebrates the structures that host various generations and dimensions of Iranians culture in this unique geographic area. On a typo-linguistic dimension, Persian and English typographic forms are fractured and melded together. This refers to the hybrid language heard all along the Tehrangeles vicinity, at times referred to as ‘P-English.’” - See more at: http://www.printmag.com/imprint/local-not-local/#sthash.a3mFZojn.dpuf |
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| Sam Anvari & Pouya Jahanshahi, in collaboration with Peyman Hamed: The Love of Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian Calligraphy event poster (screen print, metallic on matte grey), 2012. Anvari: “The Runi poem, ‘Sun’s beauty is the answer for its own existence,’ forms the figure of a whirling Dervish, referring to dance and perfection and the beauty of existence.” |
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| Maece Seirafi: Pointillist Zoomorphic Horse (pen and ink), 2014. “This zoomorphic pointillist approach was something I cultivated at CalArts with hybrid methodologies in typography. This process includes illustrating letterforms and the zoomorphic integration of Arabic letterforms and their curvaceous nature. The horse reads: “If there exists a home devoid of books, it is a home without a soul.” Each of the animal forms in my series is composed of a quote in Arabic using the technique called Zoomorphic calligraphy. Instead of using traditional ink with a bamboo stick I decided to experiment with pointillism, with areas of dark and light to emphasize depth within the form.” |
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| Maece Seirafi: Zoomorphic Peacock (lasercut cardstock, framed), 2013. “This self-initiated project, from my eagerness to experiment with tactile typography. It reads: “I Dream Daily.” Many of the animals from this series – tiger, elephant – were used in my wedding reception and became the main theme of our big event.” |
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| Ebrahim Poustinchi: World of Right and Licenses in Publication poster, 2013. Client: Tehran Book Fair. “The interplay between the classic typewriter of the past and the three-dimensional typography of present illustrates the interaction between language and culture throught time.” |
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| Yusef Al-Ahmad: Fann #2, cover design for Oasis magazine. “Oasis is the premier arts & culture magazine from Saudi Arabia that celebrates cultural heritage and a modern, progressive and young generation that is coming up with new ideas and excelling at them." |
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| Kourosh Beigpour: Scientific Meeting of Iranian Theatre Posters conference poster, 2013. Client: the Iranian Theater Poster Designers Society. “the poster was printed in Tehran for a conference about Iranian theater posters.” |
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| Shilla Shakoori: Eternity (canvas fabric stitches), 2013. “This piece is based on a Rumi poem: ‘We are not from here, and not from there; we are from nowhere, and to nowhere we go.’” |
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| Maece Seirafi and Pouya Jahanshahi: silkscreen poster, 2014. Jahanshahi: “The logo type is comprised of the English, Arabic, and Iranian translations of the name of the show.” |
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