The 8th Tehran International Poster Biennial, 15 February - 15 April 2004, Tehran, Iran.         Deadline: 31 October 2003.       Organized by Iranian Graphic Designers Society (IGDS).        Endorsed by Icograda.

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Iran is an ancient country with a history of civilization and artistic creation of over 3000 years.
Xerxes (the king of Iran) wrote the first charter of the human rights some 2500 years ago.
Since then Iran has been the land of peace, friendship, art and culture. It is a big country with a diverse climate. From the mountains blanketed with snow to the beautiful deserts and from the blue seas to broad pastures and green forests, it's all full of ancient works and Iranian civilization.

The country covers 1,600,000 square kilometers. It borders the beautiful Caspian Sea from the north and the warm Persian Gulf from the south. Tehran, the capital of Iran, with a population of over 10 million rests by the side of the Alborz mountains and the lofty snow-covered mount Damavand.
 
The cities included in the list of the world cultural heritage and civilization are Isfahan, the former capital of Iran and the legendary city of architecture and Shiraz, also a former Iranian capital, with its historical and magnificent Persepolis and the birthplace of the greatest Iranian poets, Hafez and Sa'di.
 
The history of graphic design in Iran as defined today, dates back to more than 160 years ago when the very first newspapers were printed but the Persian art of miniature has been the background of illustration since centuries ago and it is still attractive as well as innovative.
 
The first printing shop in the Middle East was opened about 270 years ago in Isfahan and gradually more printing shops were established in Tabriz and Tehran to make books and other publications available to the public. The designers and illustrators of those publications are considered as the first Iranian graphic designers.
 
With the advancement in the printing industry as well as newspapers and magazines, their layout became the center of attention. Commerce went on and commercial advertisements began to appear.
The very first advertisement was printed in the newspapers of Tehran and Tabriz about 150 years ago.
 
Graphic design in Iran as we see it today, started about 60 years ago by the artists who had the same tendency like those in the world of art. With an evolutionary pace, the Iranian graphic designers have been successful in the international arena. Also the country has hosted many great artists in this regard as well as in other fields of art. This led the country to start many art faculties. The Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran was established about 65 years ago.
 
Since the 1960s, graphic design in Iran has had a noticeable growth and many colleges and schools were established in which the graphic design is now taught professionally based on the world's contemporary knowledge. The career became the most active ever, after many different galleries, art museums and cultural centers were established. Now there are more than eight graphic design schools and about fifty galleries in Tehran itself displaying works in the field of graphic design.
 
Iran organized and hosted The First Asian Poster Exhibition in Tehran in 1977 and since then, the graphic design biennials are held every two years. So far, there have been seven graphic design biennials with many side exhibitions from the works of the greatest masters in the field. They were present in their exhibitions in order to promote graphic design amongst Iranian professionals as well as students.

Some of those guests were: Holger Matthies and Uwe Loesch from Germany, Shigeo Fukuda from Japan, Alex Jordan and Alain Le Quernec from France, Mimmo Castellano from Italy, Sadik Karamostafa from Turkey and Bruno Oldani from Norway. There were also exhibitions of style makers in graphic design from Poland, the United States, Germany, England, Switzerland, Turkey and some other countries.
 
Following its establishment, the Iranian Graphic Designers Society (IGDS) took charge of the Iranian graphic design exhibitions in Iran and abroad in association with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Visual Art Center. Now IGDS is determined to turn the graphic design biennial 2004 titled 'The 8th Tehran International Poster Biennial' into an international event by inviting poster designers from around the world to send their works to the exhibition.
 
Other exhibitions to be held simultaneously with the biennial are: '100+3', the selected works of Swiss graphic design collected by Siegfried Odermatt, the Young Swiss Graphic Designers Exhibition and 'The Three Continents' Exhibition containing the selected works of a group of internationally recognized graphic designers. The works participated in the biennial 2004 will be judged by an international jury.
 
The biennial is also going to host some great graphic designers such as: Seymour Chwast, Paula Scher and B. Martin Pedersen from The United States, Anthon Beeke from The Netherlands, Ahn Sang-Soo from South Korea, Rosmarie Tissi and Siegfried Odermatt from Switzerland, Shin Matsunaga from Japan, Linda Fu from Australia and Marta Granados from Colombia.
  

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