PROJECT M_ Iranian Stamps

Sara Jamshidi is an independent graphic designer and art director with a MA in visual communication from the Royal College of Art. She is a research-based designer with a practice that spans between the realms of archives and special collections, museums and education, with an editorial design approach. 

Through her final project at RCA, she not only explored Iran’s collective identity and cultural history told by a comprehensive collection of its postage stamps, but also she focused on the events and people that are left out by the government and therefore not historically documented by this medium. She started the Independent Iranian Stamp Committee, which commemorates events, people and humanitarian campaigns that are neglected and banned by the Iranian government. 

“For Iranians who left their homes around the 1979 Islamic revolution and couldn’t go back, the stamps on the letters they received from their families in Iran became a window to the life in Iran. At the same time, and throughout history, Iran’s governments used stamps to impose an identity on the people inside the country, as well as broadcast it abroad as a collective image. This identity has always been biased and culturally insensitive. 

What if your only resource for learning about a country was a complete archive of its postage stamps? How accurately would this collection show the country’s history, culture and the collective identity of its people? By expanding Iran’s stamp archive and representing the fluidity of its collective identity I aim to shed light on the untold sides of history that influence Iran’s cultural history. Think about it: if you had a chance to rewrite history, wouldn’t you take it?”

Visit Sara Jamshidi‘s page to know more about the project!

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