Mehdi Saeedi

rdf:langString Mehdi Saeedi

rdf:langString Mehdi Saeedi (Persian: مهدی سعیدی was born in Tehran), is an Iranian-born artist and designer based in Philadelphia and he is a part-time faculty of graphic design at the Towson University in Maryland, United States. His aesthetics have become a mainstay of design in many regions, especially in those using the Arabic and Iranian scripts as their alphabet. His special focus and proficiency in typography and calligraphy leads him to be recognized as the first designer who employed shaping of letters in forms and shapes (Zoomorphism) in graphic design. Moreover, in another part of his works, he tries to use the principles of calligraphy in type design. Accordingly, Mehdi determined and founded "Letters Melody" course and teaches in Iran's Universities as well as holding some international workshops in other countries to make people with different language background familiar with the beauty of letters in art and graphic design.In 2013, he also founded First International Exhibition of Type Design, as part of Silver Cypress. biennial, a competition that devoted to Persian type design for the first time. In consideration of Mehdi Saeedi's artworks, a large number of them have been selected for exhibition in many prominent museums, collections, major domestic and international exhibitions worldwide. They have also been published in several reputable international magazines. Mehdi won several prestigious and well-grounded awards both locally and internationally resulting in becoming known as the most awarded Iranian graphic designer in Iran's graphic history Among which are: Grand Prize, Taiwan International Poster Design Award, Taiwan, 2007; Grand Prize, "Five Stars Designers' Banquet", International Invitational Poster Triennial of Osaka, Japan, 2009; Top Award, 15th International Invitational Poster, Colorado, United States, 2007; First Prize, 12th International Poster Triennial, Ekoplagat ́11, Slovakia, 2011 and Gold Medal in "Graphis poster annual 2013", USA et c. There are additionally several publications of Mehdi Saeedi's collection as well as the selection of artworks that the recent one of those in 2013 was published with the title of "From Contour to Calligraphy" in 384 pages. Furthermore, he is included among 30 designers in Second edition of "New Masters of Poster Design" that features the best poster designers currently working all over, Also, his works feature on The History of Graphic Design. Vol. 2, 1960–Today's book. He is also an AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) member.