An Analysis of Morteza Momayez's Capital to Enhance the Champ of Graphic Design in Iran

Visual communication (graphics) is a knowledge arising from visual literacy, knowledge because it depends on visual literacy more than any discipline in visual arts, and topics such as standardization, creating visual unity for a collection, optimal use of positive and negative spaces, etc. It has great efficiency in clearly and quickly presenting a message, which has a short life in Iran. Video communication in a professional and focused manner with a personality like Morteza Momayez, was identified and recognized. Therefore, the ideal role given to him as "Iran's Graphic Father" is fully deserved, as a decade after his death, his position in the field of visual communication production has been preserved. The field of visual communication production started its early life as an independent and serios field in the art and commercial market, from the early activity period of Momayez.
 As a powerful activists of Iran visual communication champ, Momayez was very influential.  It should be mentioned that visual communication is always interconnected with two structures: activists and social space, and the effectiveness of these two has challenged many professional and research discourses of this area. The most important research in the champ of graphics have been done with topics of semiotics, structuralism, and social semiotics. So many issues such as the distinction between market and artistic visual communication remained without rooting. Sociological topics of the champ of visual communication can develop an etymological and at the same time a pathological context. In the meantime, what Pierre Bourdieu has done to connect objective and mental structures creates a useful context to challenge professional champs of the societies. By defining the terms champ and habitus, he tries to connect the two- dimensional space of theoretical foundations of sociology (topics such as mental structure, micro and macro mental structure, etc. The champ is a network of relationships that exist between objective positions within the champ. Different areas of life, art, science, religion, economy, policy and so on forms small distinctive models of rules, regulations, and forms of power which Bourdieu calls them the champ. In the first-place champ is a structural space of positions and has a close relationship with habitus. Habitus refers “the mental or cognitive structure “through which human interact with the social world. Habitus is formed because of the long-term occupation of a position Reading the social world and changes according to the nature of individual’s position. Champ and habitus define each other.
 Having their own habits, social activists compete in the champ. This competition is very essential to create position of activists, so the activists begin different activities in the professional champs and shape their vital power depending on the position they hold in the champ. Some activists make constructive and vital impact during his lifetime Momayez as the main activist in the champ of visual communication in Iran gave this champ a fame and a worthy place among other artistic champs. The hypothesis of the present article is that as an independent and powerful activist Morteza Momayez could affect the champ of visual communication production and direct it. His power and influence was due to his habitus. This habitus was the creator of visual communication champ so that the course of visual communication owes most of its professional processes in the champ of Academia, market as well as its artistic aspects to his effects. According to theoretical foundation section an artist’s habitus is derived from one 's capitals (the extent and relative weight of capitals of different factors reading a champ determined their positions) Bourdieu uses military illustration (position and castle) to describe the champ and the conflicts that take place within it. Capital allows one person to control his own destiny as well as that of others. Bourdieu usually speaks of 4 types of capitals.  Of course, this idea is derived from economics and the meaning of economic capital is obvious. Cultural capital includes various types of legitimate knowledge and cognition. Social capital includes social relationships between people. Symbolic capital comes from the dignity of the individual. As the most famous Iranian graphist, Momayez has all these main capitals. These capitals enabled him as the father of Iranian graphics to create a special habitus which has had an important role in the champ of visual communication. In present article we study his four capitals and examine their roles in enhancing the champ of visual communication production of Iran, since despite much praise and appreciation given to Momayez no article has determined his importance scientifically. By using the theory of distinction of Bourdieu we are going to appreciate the effective character and habitus of Momayez decently and scientifically. The results show a champ raised from a powerful and incorporated network with centrality of Morteza Momayez.  Such a power comes only from a person who has an uplifting habitus originated from these capitals. Without his presence the champ of visual communication was not able to achieve independence and identity and if it was, it took too much time and needed more practice. All these three areas build the champ of Iran visual communication so that in this paper by investigating cultural, social, economic and symbolic capitals of Momayez and determining the effect of each of them in the champ of visual communication, we analyze his habitus. It was his constructive cultural capital and his visual knowledge and curious spirit that helped him to increase his proficiency in different areas, therefore he could enrich the art of visual communication. Momayez became a symbol due to a lifetime of activity in the champ of visual communication. He is considered a symbolic capital whose status and prestige have not diminished over time.  Momayez is so distinguished in this symbolism that he is called the father of Iranian graphics. In fact, he is not just a cultural and artistic character, but he has become a symbolic capital. He both as an illustrator and graphic designer has been effective in developing the graphic quality of Iran.
 From the perspective of research goal this article is considered fundamental and is conducted by descriptive analytical method. Data collection tool is taking notes, and the data is collected as documents. The main variables of this study are visual communication champ of Iran and time which include the lifetime of Momayez from forties to eighties. Analytical variables of this research is theory of distinction of Bourdieu. Data and information are provided in two parts: the1st parts deals with theoretical foundations that include contents of the theory of distinction and its subdivisions, 2nd part relates to Morteza Momayez, his biography, professional situation and so on. Finally, these two parts are used to analyze the champ of visual communication of Iran. To clarify the theory and achieve better results we use tables and results.