In the 1960s and 1970s in Iran, with economic development and government support, as well as the expansion of activities and the establishment of various institutes and cultural centers, art and graphic design flourished. During these years, Iranian graphic design drew from the country’s rich visual heritage, eschewing the Swiss International Style, and found influences in Polish graphic design styles and the historical reinterpretations of Push Pin Studios. Farshid Mesghali is one of the most influential and prominent representatives of graphic art and illustration of this period. With a deep understanding of both Iranian and international visual languages, Mesghali creates works that, while poetic and simple, invite entirely personal and free interpretations. He often reimagines these diverse sources into innovative forms, embodying a generation that laid the foundations of the golden age of graphic design in Iran.
Left: Farshid Mesghali at his Studio, Tehran, 2015
A comprehensive book, Selected Works of Farshid Mesghali, was recently published in Tehran by Nazar Art Publishing. This book, unparalleled in its kind, offers a relatively complete collection of Mesghali’s works in graphic design, illustration, painting, sculpture, and photography. It also includes essays exploring various aspects of his life and work by Mahmoudreza Bahmanpour (publisher and curator of Islamic Art at LACMA), Ali Bakhtiari (curator and writer), Behzad Hatam (graphic designer), and Amir Nasri.
Bahmanpour writes in the introduction of the book: “This book is a collection of the works of an artist committed to creating beauty and bliss throughout his career, consciously avoiding gloom and ugliness. Farshid Mesghali’s interaction with difficult times, both when he worked in Iran and when he lived in France and the US, is rooted in hope. In dealing with the modern age and its achievements, not only did he not fail, but he deliberately distanced himself from portraying destruction and despair, attempting to resurrect and recreate utopia in his artwork.” He continues, “He created a new visual universe with elements from the past, including lithographic book images and Persian painting framing. By changing the structures of this category, he changed the way traditional details were used. Mesghali is the creator of an identity that presents and stabilizes Iranian modernism in imagery rather than taking us back to the past. That perception of Iranian aesthetics continues in his later work, especially his paintings and sculptures.“
Farshid Mesghali (born 1943, Isfahan) is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, where he studied painting. He began his professional career in the mid-sixties as a graphic designer and illustrator with Negareh Publishing and Advertising and Negin Magazine. He later collaborated with producer and art director Firooz Shirvanloo at Negareh Publishing, with graphic designers Morteza Momayez and Ali-Asghar Masoumi at Sharkat-e 42, and with the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA). Mesghali served as the head of the IIDCYA graphic design studio from 1970 until before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Slide 1: Ali (Bakhtiari), Mixed Media on Paper, 2021; Slide 2: Forough (Farrokhzad), Mixed Media on Paper, 2018; Slide 3: Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2020; Slide 4: Abbas (Kiarostami), Mixed Media on Canvas, 2015; Slide 5: Frida, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2015; Slide 6: Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2017
Mesghali is a creator of beauty through the simplest forms. His spontaneity, freedom, and ease in execution, which result in the masterful conveyance of emotion onto paper or canvas, have made him a consummate artist and a seasoned designer with unique technical and professional experiences. He has designed numerous posters for festivals and organizations, including the IIDCYA and the International Festival of Children and Youth Films.
Posters for Tehran International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults, 1970s
He also illustrated and designed layouts for magazines as well as for children’s books. Alongside his unparalleled works, he directed and produced several animations and also designed sets and title sequences for several feature movies.
Slide 1: Animation, 11 minutes, The Boy, the Bird and the Musical Instrument, 1971 ; Slide 2: Animation, 37 minutes, The Boy, the Bird and the Musical Instrument, 1983
Among his extensive body of enduring works, the illustrations for The Myth of Creation in Iran and The Poetry of Nima Yushij stand out as exemplary due to their distinctive style and fidelity to the literary content.
Slides 1 & 2: Illustrations from The Myth of Creation in Iran, 1977; Slide 3: Illustrations, Nima Yushij’s I’m Looking Forward to Seeing You, 1984
Mesghali is the first artist from Asia and the only artist from the Middle East to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his body of work in children’s book illustration. His works reflect his transparent, simple, lovable, and professional personality. The graphic designer in Mesghali can be seen in his sculptures and paintings, and the artist in him is evident in his graphic designs, including posters, layouts, album covers, and books.
Slides 1 & 2: Illustrations for Mojabi’s The Blue-Eyed Boy, 1974; Slide 3: Illustration for The Hero, 1970; Slide 4: Illustration for “The Sandbox,” Negin Magazine, 1967; Slide 5: Illustrations for Good Stories for Good Children, 1968; Slide 6: Illustration for Negin Magazine, 1966; Slide 7: Illustration and sketch for The Little Lizard of My Room, 1975
Each of Mesghali’s works, beyond fulfilling its “practical truth in their time,” is timeless and forms an inseparable part of the history of graphic design and contemporary Iranian visual culture. For Mesghali, problem-solving is the most exciting aspect of graphic design:
The amount and proportion of each element in a design, like cooking, determine its success. The right balance of ingredients creates a delicious meal, while the wrong balance can make it inedible. Graphic design lies somewhere between necessity and art.
Clockwise from top left: Album cover, Persian music: Chahargah, 1975; Book cover, Ahmad Shamlou’s Of The Air And Mirrors, 1974; Book cover, Behrangi’s The Little Black Fish, 1969; Book cover, Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, 1967; Album Cover, Saadi (Poet’s Voice No. 10), 1973; Album cover, Persian music: Folk Songs, 1976
Mesghali says in a short introduction at the beginning of the book, “I have worked in graphic design and animation; I sculpt and paint… But, profession-wise, I cannot give myself a label. Each of these titles represents a part of me. I don’t completely conform with any; I only partially attribute to them. The pleasure of the experience is all I care for. My entire career path has been slippery. Like a traveller that enters a new city, I have constantly floundered from one alley to another, new buildings, water edges, cafes… Life has always been like that for me, from here to there, one day at a time. In happiness or despair, like mercury that flows incessantly, at its own will.”
In recent years, Mesghali has devoted less time to graphic design and illustration, focusing instead on creating artworks such as photography, paintings, and sculptures. His exploratory and innovative spirit defines him, continually surprising his audience with each new creation.
When I discover a place, I no longer feel the desire to return to it. Some people enjoy revisiting the same place multiple times; they can immerse themselves in a single subject and spend a long time nurturing it. They might cultivate a single flower in various colors and fragrances. But I get bored—I want to experience different flowers. Innovation is part of my nature, something that comes naturally to me.
Farshid Meshghali
In the introduction to the book, Farshid Mesghali’s Collected Works, Morteza Momayez wrote:
“In his visual language, literary concepts rarely appear. He is one of those who, through his work, has contributed to expanding and enriching the pure contemporary visual language of Iran. For this reason, while his style of expression is a treasure and a significant event for experts in the field, it remains incomprehensible and unfamiliar to those who do not know or understand the visual language and its expression, and they respond to his work with estrangement.
The work begins childlike but does not end childlike. It is as if a child spontaneously starts playing with painting. Up to this point, Farshid accompanies his inner child. But then the mature, contemporary Farshid progresses in the same atmosphere, reaching a clear and pure expression with a sense of visual mysticism. It is a kind of ascent to transparency, achieved through this style, that has made him a complete artist. The sun itself is evidence of the sun.”
The book also includes a section by Amir Nasri about Meshghali’s paintings:
“In my generation, Mesghali is known as the creator of The Little Black Fish. That unconsciously puts him in the guise of an illustrator, ignoring his painterly side, which is emphasized or rather exaggerated in his recent portraits. They directly reference Fauvist coloring methods, making it seem like the painter recreated a portrait by Matisse to confirm that connection. The powerful presence of color in these works, in addition to being ‘a cover of matter,’ portrays the ‘limits’ from a child’s point of view and transforms portraiture of ‘serious people’ into childlike fantasies of ‘a rainbow and a pure image.‘”
Sculptures: Slide 1: The Horse Rider, 2009; Slide 2: Man & Lion, 2006; Slide 3: Angel, 2006; Slide 4: Untitled, 2008 & 2005; Slide 5: Shahnameh’s Rostam & The White Demon, 2005
Mesghali belongs more to his own creative, personal world than to the collective. He prefers solitude and introspection over hollow and superficial commotion. Illustration was the foundation of graphic design in Iran during those years, and if it were to be imagined as a triangle, Farshid Mesghali would undoubtedly be one of its highest points. His impact on graphic design and illustration in Iran was so profound that, for years, no other designer could match his influence.
Majid Abbasi is the design director of Studio Abbasi, an internationally active studio based in Tehran and Toronto. He leads design projects for start-ups, non-profits, and cultural institutions, specializing in visual identity and wayfinding. A member of IGDS and AGI, Abbasi contributes to the global design scene as an instructor, jury member, and writer. From 2010 to 2020, he was editor-in-chief of Neshan, Iran’s leading graphic design magazine. He is currently editing a book on the history of Iranian graphic design.
Header image: Farshid Mesghali, Photo by Maryam Zandi, 1990s; all other imagery © Farshid Mesghali, except where otherwise noted
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