● Birthplace: Tehran
Biography
He is a graphic designer and contemporary Iranian art director. His work focuses on graphic design, including poster, sign and book design, with an emphasis on typography. He is a graduate of Graphic Design from Tehran Boys’ Visual Arts Conservatory and has a bachelor’s degree in painting from Tehran University of the Arts. And he started his professional graphics career in 1989 with small orders from the Farabi Cinema Foundation. At the age of 25, he received his first major job order, which was to design posters for the 11th Fajr Festival. Abedini, member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Guild; And the International Association of Graphic Designers. His name has been included in the new edition of the History of Graphic Design book, written by Philippe Bee Megs and has received several national and international awards for his work. Among other things, in 2006 he won the € 100,000 Prince Claus Award in the Netherlands. An exhibition of his works opened on December 12 in Amsterdam that year. Master Reza Abedini, in November 2015, after a few years away from home, attended the calligraphy design exhibition at the Ab-Anbar Gallery. Calligraphy is a collection of eighty-nine works by him, located on the border between design and calligraphy, and informs of his long and deep attachment to both of these arts. Abedini in numerous domestic and foreign exhibitions; These include the Cinema House Cinema Poster Exhibition for three periods, the 2nd and 6th Biennial of Iranian Graphic Design Biennial, the Qeshm Culture Poster Exhibition, the International Exhibition of the Essen Poster Museum (Germany) for two periods, the Exhibition of Experimental Posters by Iranian Graphic Designers, the Brief Encounters Poster (Paris). – Warsaw), has participated in the International Biennale (Czech Republic). He has also judged many international and domestic festivals. He has also taught graphic design, visual design, printing, poster design, typography, typing and image at the University of Tehran, School of Fine Arts, Azad University and Al-Zahra University.
He explains one of the reasons he left Iran: One of the things that really bothered me was the unhealthy, boring atmosphere of Iranian intellectuals. Seeing people again and again and again and repeating the same things and not that you are not safe, but in Iran it is very easy and normal to copy a work and everyone does it easily if outside of Iran and in The professional level of such a thing is embarrassing for everyone and it is not possible for you to find something that works with the care of someone else. More importantly for me, it was bad that being copied by others allowed my personal experiences. And there was no one to ask in the meetings where the things you were doing came from, whether they were cursing or whistling for Adam, no one wrote two lines to say what you were doing. What is your intention and you made these mistakes here, one line, if you find such a thing, I am ready to return to Iran and work again in my homeland.
Reza Abedini currently lives with his family in The Hague, the Netherlands, and teaches at a university in Beirut.
Education
1985 – Graduated in graphic design from the School of Visual Arts
1992 – Bachelor of Painting from Tehran University of Arts
Activities
1989 – Start of professional activity as a graphic designer
1993 – Establishment of Reza Abedini Design Office in Tehran
1997 – Member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Association
2001 – Member of the International Association of Graphic Designers – AGI
1999 – Head of the G.D.S Cultural Committee
1990 – Beginning of activity as a writer and critic in the field of visual arts
1992 – 1993 – Editing the visual section of Surah monthly
1997 – Designing the book of the Prophet by Khalil Gibran – Iran
1999 – Landscape Image Book – Iran
2000 – Art Publishing – Textbook in Iranian Art Schools
2000 – The Story of Dwarfs and Length – Iran
2002 – Autobiography, a selection of works – Iran
2003 – In the beginning, a selection of works – Iran
2004 – France, PYRAMYD Publications, Design & Designers Reza Abedini, Design and Designers
2006 – New Visual Culture of Modern Iran.
Individual Exhibitions
2001 – In the direction of photography – Iran
2001 – In the beginning – Iran
2002 – Return – Iran
2002 – Answer – Iran
2004 – The Look Book – Paris
2004 – Mother Tongue – Taiwan
2005 – Visual Language Reza Abedini – Amsterdam
2006 – No words – Iran
2006 – Poster Exhibition, POSTRAM – Netherlands Den Haag
Group Exhibitions
1993 – 1994 – 1996 – Film Poster – Tehran
1991 – 2003 – 2009 – Tehran Biennial
1998 – Cultural Posters – Qeshm Island
1998 – Fourth Generation – Tehran
Group exhibitions in Qazvin, Hong Kong, Korea, Warsaw, Paris, Japan, China, Ukraine, Essen, Emont, Echirolles, Toyama, Trnava, Brno Beirut, Amsterdam, Dubai, Doha, Istanbul, Colorado
Awards
1993 – 1994 – 1996 – First Prize for Best Film Poster for Fajr International Film Festival – Iran
1994 – Special Award for Film Critics, for Best Poster – Iran
1996 – Best Film Poster – Iran IRIB Special Award
1999 – Third Poster Award – Sixth Biennial of Iranian Graphic Designers – Tehran
1999 – Special Award for Creativity – Iranian Graphic Designers Association – Tehran
2003 – International Biennial Special Award of China Poster Design – China
2003 – Honorary Award of the Colorado International Poster Exhibition – USA
2003 – Award of the Union of Visual Artists of the Czech Republic – Brno
2003 – Second Prize of the 15th Chamont Poster Festival – France
2003 – Gold Award, Hong Kong International Poster Design Triennial – Hong Kong
2003 – First Prize and Gold Medal, 8th International Poster Design Biennial – Mexico
2003 – Silver Award for the Second International Biennial of Poster Design – Korea
2003 – First Prize of the First International Biennial of Islamic World Poster Design – Iran
2004 – Bronze Medal of the Second International Poster Design Biennial – China
2004 – First Prize of the 9th Children and Adolescents Press Festival – Iran
2005 – Silver Medal of the 20th International Biennial of Warsaw Poster Design – Poland
2006 – Prince Claus Prize – Netherlands
Workshops
– France – Paris ECV
– Netherlands – Hallo Academy
– France – Intuit / Lab
– Diameter – VCUQ
– Lebanon – LAU
– Turkey – Mimar Sinan
– Dubai – AUD
– Taiwan – CPC
– Australia – RMIT
