Bāhār
Motion typography | 2022

This project is a series of video-typographies for the word باهار (Bāhār) to commemorate spring, Nowruz, and the new Persian year (1401 solar Hijri calendar). It is also part of a collective online typography exhibition on the Instagram page Arabic-Script.

We knew that perhaps most of the graphic designers would love to work on the ها character in the word باهار. So we decided to eliminate its visual appearance and instead show the sound of ها (hā) as an audible/readable element in the middle of the word. In fact, hā is one of the most interesting melismas in folklore music (Tahrir in traditional Persian music). So we searched through the traditional music from the cultures that celebrate Nowruz and found great pieces within a vast region from Tajikistan to Azerbaijan. Once a nice hā was chosen from each music, it was cut out and an audible loop was created. The rest was all focused on typography, finding, and adjusting proper motifs and relative videos. They all had to create an honest representation of the music in question. However, all of the cultures that now we know better as individual countries were once called Iranshahr. After hundreds of years, they still share a lot of cultural characteristics and traditions, such as Nowruz. Our main intention in this project was to show how broad is the tradition of Nowruz and how meaningless is the political borders when we think about the common culture.

Music: An excerpt from “Dad-O Bidad” – by Hossein Alizadeh & Ham Avayan band, Iranian artists

Dance: Khatoon Fallah

Music: An excerpt from “Bahor Ayyomi” – by Sherali Joʻrayev, Uzbek artist

Music: An excerpt from a performance by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani artist

Music: An excerpt from “Navrusi Sabo” – by Barno Itzhakova, Tajik artist

Music: An excerpt from “Gelinler” – by Khomat Jelilov, Turkmen artist

Music: An excerpt from a performance by Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, Afghan artist

Music: An excerpt from “Beste-Nigar” by Alim & Ferghana Qasimov, Azeri artists

In collaboration with Arabic Script
Graphic design: Shima Pirayesh, Davood Morgan, Javad Zarinia
Motion graphics: Farid Yahaghi
Research: Mahmoud Torabian