The Characteristics of Persian Typography in Iranian Poster Design Arts

Poster design is considered as one of the most important branches of graphic arts in Iran and other countries. It is in fact a guiding statement manifested as an indicative language. As visual purpose the relationship between image and letters is very important in posters. Today design of letters or typography has developed the visual possibilities and has functioned parallel with imagery. History of poster design and graphic arts in Iran and other countries shows posters with dominant use of the letters rather than pictorial elements, a fact that indicates the graphic potential of letters and its functions in this field. In the Iranian plastic arts in particular graphic arts, typography has a distinct position because of its particular aesthetic and functional possibilities, which has especially found a new definition and function in the field of typography. Because of aesthetic and structural features of Persian letters, it is distinguished from the Latin typography. These features are sometimes considered as disadvantages and sometimes as potencies by the experts. This article aims at studying the features of Persian letters with a typographical expression in poster design and exploring the functions of letters and or text, and the role of typography in poster design plus introducing some approaches. The information is resulted from laboratory studies and using the analytic and descriptivemethods, and the research focuses on a structural study of Persian letters. The results indicate that the knowledge of (formalist and narrative) types of Iranian typography has a significant positive effect on the process and outcome of poster design. The role of legibility (informativeness, beauty and visual appeal) of the poster in the visual process of poster design is one of the important points to which every designer must fully attend. Understanding the visual characteristics of Persian letters, its possibilities for calligraphy and using that are fundamental principles for graphic designers and typographists. Knowledge of the role of letters as “legibility agents”, “challenging visual elements and agents” and “aesthetics agents” is important in the process of letter designing. Attention to the visual potency of each letter and visual potential (to create special effects) is directly linked to the use of the letters in typographic process. The methodology is based on descriptive and analytic approach with the gathering data from library.