Iranian Contemporary Design - 2

Mitra Shahsavand has never designed a poster, but customer transaction forms she designed for a bank help thousands of people perform banking tasks easier, faster, and with greater peace of mind. Although my colleagues and I display posters proudly in galleries, I doubt we could have resolved such a serious design problem as effectively as Shahsavand did for that bank.
    Mitra Shahsavand is a graphic designer who carries out the design process perfectly without missing any detail. First, she defines and understands the problem accurately. Then she chooses the proper ground to lay her design path from various pathways. She allows enough time to reach the best idea and develops it flawlessly. In order to visualize idea, she selects the best technique and method without anxiety about showing off her personal style, and performs it with great obsession. She does whatever it takes for the best performance — the final result is nothing less than an efficient and appealing response to the client need.
    Her working style is the fruit of what she learned during ten years of education and work in the highly competitive conditions of the UK. In such conditions, designers are obliged to thoroughly analyze a subject, to have a multi-dimensional view (not focusing solely on visual aspects of design), to solve the problem with a comprehensive understanding of all aspects, and to be creative.
    Shahsavand graduated from the University of Tehran in graphic design. She earned her BTech in Typographic Design and Graphic Communications from London College of Communication and received an MA in Communications, Media and Public relations from the University of Leicester, UK. She has worked with international brands such as Adidas, Nestlé, Samsung, Douwe Egberts, Fujitsu-Siemens, MoneyGram, Cable and Wireless, and Premier Inn. She also has considerable experience working with domestic brands such as Parsian Bank, Saman Bank, Golestan, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University, Sisal, Tashrifat Tea, and Rouzaneh.
    However, the most important point is her precise understanding of the working conditions and popular culture in Iran, which has led to successful localization of work methods adapted from an alien environment.
    She has learned well that a boundary exists between design and art, and that graphic designers are responsible for finding the best solutions to client needs. All the while, these solutions must be visually attractive and eye-catching in order to establish effective and efficient communication.
    Although she begins the design process by creating a story based on her mental and inner experiences, she never forgets the concept and message the story must ultimately transmit. Her experience professional experience and habitual understanding of real client needs have turned her into a perfect designer. She designs like an engineer and subtilizes her work like an artist.

It has been a while since Shahsavand has focused on visual identity design. Therefore, she now follows a long, complicated process for each project — beginning with finding a proper and planned strategy for reaching a result that functions properly and soundly. A brand may not be formed unless its visual identity is in accordance with its determined identity and structure. In the same manner, designing a visual identity system without having a deep and precise understanding of the brand, its values and characteristics would be impossible. A designer who specializes in visual identity must necessarily have a strong ability in recognizing concepts behind brands and their identities so that he/she can build a solid foundation for his/her work. Based on the principles of teamwork in brand strategy formulation, Shahsavand has a close collaboration with the experts in this field in order to simultaneously form the internal and external aspects of the brand. This collaboration requires team spirit in addition to a correct understanding of the activities of other experts in the team. Surprisingly, these two points are among the problems faced by many designers in our country. On the one hand, we are weak in teamwork culture due to the lack of necessary training in different educational stages. On the other hand, we do not have enough knowledge and awareness of parallel activities leading to the perfection and improvement of the design process, and consider them trivial and unnecessary.
    Shahsavand has also proved her ability in team leadership and direction through her vast and comprehensive insight into the various aspects of a branding project, her humbleness while working with the other team members, the knowledge and proficiency she has in the field, and the huge energy and motivation that she transmits affably to the others. The best example of this characteristic can be seen in creating the visual identity system of the Saman Bank brand. Shahsavand was the design director of the project and executed it in the best possible way with the help of a large number of different design and branding experts. The result of this direction and collaboration was a unique case of visual identity formulation and design for an Iranian brand.
    In her other advertisement projects, Shahsavand emphasizes idea development based on the client’s needs and seeks to resolve his/her communication problem while remaining attractive and decipherable for the audience. She impeccably plays her communicative role as the link between the client and the audience and benefits from all the appropriate and possible tools. Technical diversity is completely evident in her work and she does not fall into the trap of uselessly repeating a certain method or technique under the pretense of a personal style. Her personal style is mostly noticeable in her particular way of thinking in design and the emphasis she puts on process. Although we might not be able to realize this effect, it is considered as a panacea for the clients.
Bank Parsian Advertisement Series in the Banker
In 2011, Parsian Bank asked Mitra Shahsavand to design a series of advertisements for the Banker. Their previous advertisements displayed two Achaemenid soldiers with spears in their hands which did not convey any special meaning to the foreigners (probably because it seemed unfamiliar).
    At that time, environmental protection was a controversial issue. Thinking it could be attractive to the magazine’s foreign audience, she decided to put it at the center of her work and discuss the environmental benefits of the Bank; activities such as investment in dam construction, building wind power plants, auto manufacturing plants for making less pollutant cars, and agricultural facilities for land protection to farmers. This was how the earth, water, air, fire campaign was formed.
    In the first issue, all four topics were mentioned together under the slogan of “Together we can.” In the following issue, each subject was mentioned separately in a different advertisement with the slogan: “Save the future.”
    After the publication of two issues, the Banker published an article on the role of banks in environmental protection with a design closely resembling that of the Parsian Bank advertisements. The Parsian Bank advertisement was placed at the end of the article, implicitly appreciating the Bank because of the new subject it had raised. The next feedback clarified that these advertisements had created a credible image of Parsian Bank in addition to influencing the general approach of some other banks’ advertisements. This was the change it made, which can be considered as a great success for both the client and the designer.