Hadi Mozaffari, Director General of Visual Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, sent a message of condolences on the death of veteran designer and graphic artist Serge Avakian.
According to the Communications and Media Unit of the General Directorate of Visual Arts, Hadi Mozaffari, Director General of Visual Arts, has stated in this message: “Avakian was one of the renowned professors and veteran artists in the field of painting and graphic design in Iran. He worked for many years to educate and excel the young artistic generation of Iran. “I offer my condolences to the artistic community, academia and his family for the absence of this eminent professor, and I ask God to be patient for the survivors and to raise the divine degrees for the deceased.”
Serge Avakian (in Armenian: Սերժ Ավագյան) born in 1938 in Tabriz, he studied painting and graphic design at the Credon Academy of Fine Arts in London and was the first Iranian to become a member of the British Designers Association L.S.I.A.D.,
After returning to Iran, he set up his studio on Taleghani Street in Tehran and worked as a graphic designer.
One of Serge Avakian’s most well-known works is the design of Pofak Namaki packaging. In 1970’s, when the Minoo Industrial Group decided to produce Puffs, they ordered the packaging of this product to Serge, he says:
“I had just returned to Iran and had never seen puff in my life; I took the color and shape of the logo from the puff form itself. These are the images that should speak. One day I went to a printing house that was going to print cellophanes. As a young man, I worked as a silk screenwriter for Aldo Sarafian, and I also had a degree in printing. I realized that I had to do the work of salt puff (Pofak Namaki) with the simplest form and color. I designed the work in two colors, yellow and red. “Later, Mino printed the same design in 4 colors or 5 colors, but it was not welcomed and they returned to the previous design.”
He was an official member of the faculty of the University of Arts for about forty years and taught art at the university. He became the founder of new graphic subdivisions such as letter design, television graphics, environmental graphics, airbrushing, printing, page layout and tool recognition at the university.
Serge Avakian died at the age of 83 in the evening of September 9, 2020 due to cardiopulmonary arrest in Tehran.
