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I for one am weary of the East and West being presented within the frame of what we can learn from one another, sitting at a table and blubbering over missed opportunities. One does what one does, we design for utility and for pleasure, and we communicate across boundaries because we communicate for a living. Images and texts are our modus operandi, and we are unashamed and unapologetic about it. I feel no pity for those ignorant of the societies that have come before and continue to press forward and even ahead of the Anglocentric ideal.
This may sound antithetical to you, or a biting of the hand that feeds. But really we must step back from ourselves to witness how we look at others looking at ourselves looking at others. How are we coloured by how we are perceived? Are we adopting orientalist notions by trying to prove that we are in the game? Are we self-depricating in order to trump the imperialists, and then self-congratulating when we match them?
I speak in the collective because I am privileged to both identities, holding the passport of one country and my heart in another. With that, an introduction to another exposure. It is a book, and it will not be delivered on the back of a camel (as far as I know ;).
UPDATE 23.02.08:
'Arabesque – Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia', to be released in April by Die Gestalten Verlag.
www.arabesque-graphics.com/main.html
www.die-gestalten.de/books/detail?id=d7f6f0d817779bea0117d04e2079011c
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The work of eps51 - www.eps51.com - a graphic design studio run by Ben Wittner and Sascha Thoma, includes an upcoming book on which I, and undoubtedly several others involved with Khatt, have very graciously been asked to participate. The site for talib - www.talib-type.com - currently features a request for work, although I am uncertain if they are still taking submissions.
It will focus on fresh new graphic design in the Middle East and Iran, as well as the merging of Eastern and Western styles. Expected out in early 2008 on by die gestalten verlag www.die-gestalten.de Another admirable project certain to bring positive exposure to our craft. And I don't just say so because I'm included.
Kudos to all of you pushing the bounds to surface Arabic and Persian design. We are not an oriental curiosity, stuffed in the corner of a British museum. We are yet alive.
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