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Medium: Persian Calligraphy + Adobe Illustrator
Dimensions: 70cm x 100cm
This poster was designed to pay tribute to Saadi of Shiraz, a major Persian poet and prose writer in the 13th century. He is universally praised for his poetic ability and his noble thoughts on social and moral issues.
The poem is translated as:
Humans are peers of a united race,
Thus in creation, share the same base.
If one is affected with pain,
Others share the faith of same.
When you are indifferent to this pain,
You shall not earn the Humans’ name.
In designing the poster, the meaning of his most famous poetic aphorism was used to focus on the concepts of philanthropy and sympathy.
Applying typography based on Nastaliq while designing, I used the metaphorical meaning of the poem by resorting to the fact that words in Persian writing are made by connecting alphabetical letters, and when there is space between and among letters, the meanings of the words change or they become meaningless.
Instead of being parallel, vertical lines in different directions were used as background lines, and words were fragmented to show the lack of unity.
Blue is the symbol of Eastern Mysticism.
A black marker is generally used to censor parts of a text. The black rectangles showed censorship and its metaphorical ineffectiveness on truth.
The name of the poet was written inside parentheses at the top-left on a shape of fire and letters. This symbolizes a Persian depiction of some people’s faces surrounded by lights or flames, showing their greatness or holiness.