نشریه پیکره
پیاپی 11 (تابستان 1396)

Sahifi Jowhari is one of the most accomplished calligraphers in Sulus living in Safavid era. He wrote poetry as well. Nonetheless, his biography and works in the history of Iranian calligraphy have been only scantily studied. Sahifi was one of the influential men of Zolghadr clan of Shiraz who was brought up and died in Isfahan. The present research aimed to both introduce Sahifi’s available works and group them in different classes from different aspects. The important questions of his research included: In what time span could Sahifi produce his main works? What are the salient features of his inscriptions? This research was followed library research and field studies. All available cases were then examined. Statistical cases included nine inscriptions in Isfahan. The results indicated that one of the inscriptions is in nastaliq and the others are in sulus. Based on the evidence available in Masjid-e-Jami (Gathering mosques), Shahshahan Tomb, Shahzeid Tomb, Jorjir Mosque, Jarchi Mosque and Sorkhi Mosque, all in Isfahan, he created his main works during the last two decades of the 10th Hijri century and during the early two decades of the 11th Hijri century. In addition, the formalistic study of Sahifi’s works imply that his inscriptions, like many other inscriptions of Safavid era, are fairly readily legible; no elaborate calligraphic style has been applied. At the same time, unlike other Safavid inscriptions, the background decorative elements of Sahifi’s calligraphic works have a simple pattern.

The emergence of Shia themes in the artworks of Iran had taken place even before the Shia branch was declared as the formal religion of the country. The representation of the Shia themes in artworks in Iran, however, reached its summit in Safavaid era and continued until Qajar era. Nonetheless, after the printing industry was introduced in Iran, new windows were opened to the Iranian artists. Many books with religious themes were lithographically printed in Qajar era. One of these books is an illustrated book named Toufan-ol-Boka addressing the afflictions of the Ahl al-Bayt. Since the book was welcomed by the people, it was then illustrated as well. The present study aimed to examine the illustrations of a selected copy of the mentioned book in terms of the Shia themes. The methodology of the research is descriptive-analytic and the data were gathered based on the library sources. The main question of this study is to what extent the illustrations represented in the religious books of Qajar era were under the influence the of Shia themes and how such themes were represented in Toufan-ol-Boka. The results indicated that most of the books printed lithographically in Qajar era included the books containing Shia themes. In addition, in such illustrations, the representation of the figures of Imams has been traditionally avoided and, instead, the religious symbols have been depicted. The implied message in such artworks is readily recognizable for the Shia addresses. It is, however, rather difficult to appreciate those western experts of art who are not familiar with the foundation of Shia thought.

The graphic design of the brands evolves under the influence of a wide variety of factors such as shifting targets to sell more or, at least, to keep the market share of a given product as well as social and political parameters or technological advances. In fact, many famous companies, after several decades, have started to change, modify or revise the visual elements, symbols and old signs used in their brands in order to present them to the customers in a new form and shape. The modified or changed visual face of a brand in the course of time indicates not only the visual taste of each era, but also it represents the evolution of graphic designs. Among the brands the visual designs of which have changed in the process of time,Frito-Lay Inc is a good example. A famous brand in the field of producing nuts and sweets, Frito-Lay Inc presents its products in the packages with eight various brands. This study aimed to examine the evolutionary trend of the packages of this brand since its inception. To do so, the evolution of graphic design and the involving parameters, particularly in the area of packaging, was analyzed and explained. Then, the evolution of the visual changes of the mentioned brand as well as its packaging was studied. The methodology is qualitative in nature and the results have been presented analytically and descriptively. The data were gathered based on library sources and reliable databases. The results indicated that in spite of resistance of certain famous brands to their packages being changed, the reasons which were pointed out in the study, their packaging design has been changed or modified. In this course, however, the effective communication with the customers, which has been realized through keeping the visual identity of the product represented by the minimal use of graphic elements, has been maintained.

In order to remain dynamic and to make oneself distinguished, an artist may take different approaches; approaches which may, in turn, create new styles in art. If such an approach can be named going beyond oneself, then many artists may be nominated to have practiced it making novel styles. Going beyond oneself often follows two distinct ways: being inspired by other artists or adopting an anti-style action by the artist. Interestingly enough, it sometimes happens that certain artists, irrespective of their nationality or of their way of thinking, have become very close to each other in terms of artistic outlook and taste. Accordingly, a considerable amount of similarity can be seen among their works. Being inspired by one another has led to creation of novel artistic styles. Two of such artists are Kamalodin Behzad and David Hockney. Both went beyond themselves and beyond the common painting styles; the former by challenging his own style and the latter by being inspired by the oriental painting style. This research aimed to study certain works of Kamalodin Behzad and David Hockney comparatively in order to analyze and evaluate the similarities among their works and, hence, to examine the process of going beyond oneself by the artist. The data were mainly collected from library sources.  The result of the study indicated that in the course of going beyond oneself, the styles are incorporated. It is, in fact, the very incorporation, in terms of form and content, that gives birth to new movements in art as well as to novel artistic styles.