Contemporary Arabic and Persian Graphic DesignShifting Scripts

14 February 2025

Talks, panel discussions, and workshops: This April, a multifaceted event jointly organised by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MK&G) and the CSMC explores the intersections of Arabic and Persian graphic design with cultural, political, and artistic narratives.

Southwest Asia and North Africa, the so called SWANA region, are home to a variety of scripts with a rich calligraphic tradition, in particular Arabic and Persian. This has profoundly influenced several forms of typographic design in this region, with designers often drawing inspiration from historical manuscripts, calligraphic styles, and cultural identities. They create and use typefaces to communicate powerful messages, stimulate collective action, uphold cultural heritage, and challenge cultural norms.

Focusing on typography as a script-based practice, ‘Shifting Scripts: Contemporary Arabic and Persian Graphic Design’, a conference that is organised jointly by the MK&G and the CSMC, will explore the intersections of Arabic and Persian graphic design with cultural, political, and artistic narratives. From 24 to 26 April 2025, the conference will provide a unique platform for engaging with Arabic and Persian script from both academic and design perspectives and investigate how contemporary graphic design can be understood within the broader fields of design research and the humanities, with a particular focus on the SWANA region.

In addition to panel discussion and talks, the event is also accompanied by two workshops to foster a transdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, students, and designers. ‘Type & Politics’, which is ed by Golnar Kat Rahmani, addresses the background, causes, and impacts of negative associations with Persian-Arabic scripts in our daily lives in Europe. The hands-on workshop intends to dismantle these prejudices and negative perceptions. The ‘Arabic Lettering Workshop (Episode 21) East–West’, led by Kristyan Sarkis and Amir Mahdi Moslehi, is part of a workshop series dedicated to Arabic lettering, with each episode exploring a unique theme. This episode will delve into the writing traditions of the Eastern part of the Arabic-scripted world and its western counterpart.

More information on the conference, both workshops, and how to register is available here.

Mahdi Moslehi