Our annual theme ‘Typical Type’ focuses on letters, characters and typography. During ‘CURRENT CHARACTERS III – Stand Through Type’, we gave the floor to three designers who don’t shy away from a powerful statement.
Studio Saber, Yuri Veerman and Studio Melli dare to tackle pressing issues through design that takes a clear stance. Typography and language play a crucial role in their practice, serving as powerful tools to sharpen and convey messages.
Omid Nemalhabib is co-founder of Studio Melli, an independent design studio based in The Hague. In his presentation, Omid took the audience around his home country of Iran, talking about the country’s beautiful and not so beautiful sides. He talked about the creative ways of getting around the strict policies so that he could still publish what he wanted. ‘It is important to speak out; it makes people think,’ he said.
Visitor Jeanne admires the speakers and their stories: ‘This evening makes it clear to what extent the political climate determines what freedoms you have to speak out about something.’ This is also evident in the story of Saber Javanmard. Under the name Studio Saber, his practice explores the boundaries of graphic design, typography and painting by using letters as an artistic starting point. During his presentation, he takes us back to 16 September 2022, the day 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini died in Tehran. This happened after she was arrested for opposing the compulsory hijab. The tragedy sparked a wave of protests across Iran and ignited the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution.
In The Hague, Saber sat glued to the news with a helpless feeling, he describes. One slogan caught his attention and he wrote it down. The next day, he did it again. Documenting protest slogans in a typographical way had a calming effect and made him feel like he was contributing something. It resulted in the ‘Slogans Documentations’ series, currently on display at 3sec.gallery. With this work, Saber wants to convey an important message: democracy, freedom and our core values are not presents: we have to fight for them. ‘As designers, we have the very best weapon: our pen. That is mightier than any sword,’ he says.
The final speaker of the evening is Yuri Veerman, an artist and designer from Amsterdam who explores social issues through political imagery and poetic typography. Yuri’s work can often be found on the streets, where it is logically seen by people with different opinions. ‘It becomes very real when people scratch through your work, or actually write something to it that encourages,’ he says. The public character of his work also brought threats. That doesn’t stop him from continuing to speak out.
The three talks are inspiring, powerful and sometimes moving. It encourages critical thinking about the role of design in public debate. Visitor Stijn finds the stories behind the works very strong: ‘As a designer, it is important to formulate and shape your message well. Inspiring to see how you can make an impact.’
Photos by Rob Lipsius
