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I just randomly discovered what seems to be an abandoned website, called 7 pages design cartoons. It seems to be a collaborative project of 7 guys in Iran. It doesn't contain much, except two flash games. But the artwork on the main page is quite well done. Anyone has any more info on these guys?
Their main page, called 7 pages design, which showcases their design creations, white pretty, seems to be equally abandoned as well.

Over the past few days I have received some new submissions for the Project 300 gallery. Check out the gallery page as some of them are quite funny and clever.

Also, Nima Darabi sent me this autostereogram, which has an image of the tomb of Cyrus the great embedded in it. (I suck at reading autostereograms, but if you can see the image in there let us know :) )

I just came across this slideshow of Persepolis. I had never seen shots of Persepolis taken in rain or fog, and there are a lot of photos like that in this slideshow. Even though the compression on these images is brutal, there are still some breath-taking photos in the set.

I stumbled upon Hanif Bahari's art a few weeks ago and had bookmarked his portfolio so I could write about him later. I didn't have time to update here for a couple of weeks, but I figured featuring his work is as good an excuse as any to update the site after a while.
I really like his style and the quirkiness of his cartoons. He also has a distinct sense of humor that makes his colorful cartoons more fun.

His work can be found on several places on the web. Some of his stuff is at this KolahStudio page, while some others can be found on this page here. He also has a profile on Kargah.com, where interestingly enough some of his cartoons have been censored! Finally, Iranian.com also featured some of his art back in 2005.

Hamid Bahrami is one of the most respected artists in Iran and It is certainly a privillege to have him on board Project 300 with his work in the gallery.

The multi-talented 35-year-old veteran has an amazingly diverse body of work ranging from regular sketches, to cartoons and illustrations, to animation and game-related art.

His cartoons are full of quirky humor and sarcasm, and he has an ability to command whatever style of drawing he wishes to use.

Visit his portfolio at your own risk, since you can easily find yourself browsing through his art for a long time (the site's navigation is at times fidgety, but moving the mouse away from the nav-bar and then back should do the trick).

Last week, several new pieces were submitted to the Project 300 Gallery. The first one is a lovely comic-style cg drawing of Darius (an Achaemenid king) by the great Hamid Bahrami.
There are also a couple of nice works by fantasy illustrator Maryam Gousheh Forgeot.

I've always thought of Fashion Photography as the absolute best job in the world. If I had another chance, that was the career I would have pursued. But Iran-born Max Abadian doesn't need another chance, as he is already living the dream.

I just stumbled upon his website by luck, and I was awed by the beautiful pictures in his portfolio. There's little about him other than this short blurb : "Born in Iran and raised in Germany, Max Abadian studied at Dawson’s Institute of Photography. A prestigious fashion and advertising photographer, he raises interest on an international scale. Max has an irresistible way of creating a captivating atmosphere. He seduces the eye with the unequivocal beauty of his work. "

He has photographed celebrities Gwen Steffani, Avril Lavigne, Elisha Cuthbert, and Nelly Furtado, to name a few. But don't take my word for it, head over and check out his portfolio.

Meera is an alternative rock band in Iran who have been around for a number of years. I recently stumbled upon a new music video by them and thought I would share it here. Farzam Rahimi, the band's vocalist is truly one of my favorite Persian vocalists around. His singing voice has an original quality that is both genuine and effortless, which I feel is a rarity among Persian vocalists who often sound disingenuous and imitating.

you can also check out their older music videos here, and here.

While government-sponsored public murals and wall-painitngs are deeply rooted in pop-culture in Iran, independent graffiti - the way it exists in the west - has never been a part of our urban culture, at least not as widely as it is in other countries. The closest thing resembling a graffit I remember seeing in my childhood growing up in Iran was a stenciled "Pink Floyd" sprayed on our concrete garbage bin/box outside our home - and I didn't know what it meant!

So I when I discovered the blog "Iran Graffiti" the other day, I was quite surprised. They (who seem to have been around for more than a year), capture snapshots of graffitis across Iran and post them on the blog. While many of the posted graffiti art seems somewhat juvenile, it's clear that graffiti art is becoming more popular, and you can certainly find some decent stuff in there as well. Interestingly, one of these graffiti artists (self proclaimed "vandal or anarchist") has his/her own blog and gallery as well.

Through IranGraffiti, I also discovered Kolah Studios, which is an underground arts e-zine, and Brainstorm, which is sort of a quarterly underground arts magazine published in pdf form. All these are apparently produced and managed by the same team.

While cg painting and illustration have only recently become popular among Persian artists, their involvement with 3D modeling and design goes back far earlier. With the release of the first versions of 3DStudio, many persian artists became interested in 3D art and numerous 3D animation studios were launched, mainly producing TV commercials. Unfortunately, not being involved in 3D, I don't know much about the community and the 3D big shots, but the other day I came across the website and portfolio of Ali Rahimi, and I was impressed with the depth of his work. While his 3D images and animation projects look incredible, he has an interesting twisted style with his "sketches" as well. I strongly recommend browsing his portfolio.

Another incredible 3D artist I came across a while ago is 42-year-old Adel Adili, who I believe is a veteran of 3D art in Iran. His versatile body of work varries from architectural landscapes to disney-style character modelling. Don't miss out on his 2D gallery either, where he clearly shows his skills as a CG painter. Finally, he's also has an active presence on cgsociety, taking part in numerous challenges (and winning quite a few!)

Finally, I like to introduce the portfolio of our very own Ali Jalali. His Project 300 contribution was one of the most viewed pieces in the gallery and was circulating in the Persian blogosphere for some time after it was featured here. In his submission, he had combined traditional Persian Miniature paintings (see this too) with 3D art, and had created a breath-taking image of a woman with her harp. Miniature Paintings are a corner-stone of Persian arts, and you can't grow up in Iran without seeing this artform everywhere. Interestingly, before this piece, I had only seen one other instance of trying something new with this type of art (I'll get to that in another post). Anyway, Ali Jalali has a few other pieces in his portfolio at cgsociety which deserve a look.

There are many other accomplished 3D artists to mention. If you know some of them feel free to leave a comment.