TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Mehr News Agency) -- Veteran Iranian artist Aidin Aghdashlu is convinced that Iran's graphic arts are in critical condition.

Speaking on the occasion of the first Festival of Man and Traffic to be held in Tehran, Aghdashlu said that graphic arts can depict people's relationship in respecting each other's rights especially in the field of traffic.

"Graphics has great influence on people. Actually, graphics tries to produce signs that promote civil relations among people. But people must also agree on how to make use of these signs," he added.
 

"Today Posters" is the official website of Iranian independent designers Society. It is a non-governmental and unaffiliated website and is trying to demonstrate the best samples of Iranian and international poster designs.

He went on to say, "Graphics facilitates people's interactions. If people in a society pay less attention to one another and act aggressively against each other while in traffic, no doubt, graphic arts or any other art will have minimal influence."

Aghdashlu also criticized the current status dominating the art of graphic design and said, "Iran's graphic art is in bad shape. Unfortunately, besides those graphic designers who have studied the course professionally and are active in this field, there are many designers from other unrelated fields like engineering who create works with the help of computer design. The work they produce may seem satisfactory but bears no artistic value. Of course, we can not blame any specific organization for this, but we must concede that civil graphic art is a technical branch of graphic design that has its own psychology and the designer must be a qualified professional."

He later proposed that the graphic designers should execute their work with precision and must be committed to their field, adding, "Also, those responsible for ordering must be fully aware of the effect of graphic designs on civil relationships and must know precisely what they are ordering."

Aghdashlu also remarked that holding these kinds of festivals are necessary and that people need to know that there are some who are actively seeking solutions for their social problems.

The first Festival of Man and Traffic will be held for one week and open on October 6 at Tehran's Shahrk-e Azmayesh and Iranian Artists Forum.