Interviews with Mohamad ali Vadood

My father used to work in industry. So, since I were a child, simple tools were kind of my playthings. My elder brother helped me take the first steps as a child, game-wise, and as for my mother, she would always support my ideas as a kid and take them serious.
When I was a teenager, I would make my toys himself and have fun with my playmates who were usually fascinated by my invented toys. School used to offer me a mundane existence and I always thought I could make a better use of my time out of school.
I was able to get my hands on a load of good wood, due to my geography, and as a result I got to like it. Through a television program, I realised there were carving workshops in another city. So, I traveled there and spent a year training with special tools and making inlay forms.
On my return, I opened my own workshop and after a while, was invited to work for the Cultural Heritage Organization. At the Institute of Traditional Arts of the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, I had the opportunity to draw on the experiences of longtime professors of different fields of design and traditional arts. And then I was elected as the head of the Wood Arts Workshop at that institute. At the same time, due to my artistic and research activities, I was honoured to receive first-rate art from the Supreme Council of Culture of Iran. It was when I was invited to teach by the art universities.
In all of these years, I believed I have in fact experienced a real on-the-job training process and these words are actually the record of the training I have been through.

I tend to have a naturalistic style in my design. I believe the foundation of everything is there in nature. The main feature and attitude of my design is to show a new horizon of ability and path to a harmony with pristine nature in order to achieve visual expression. I like hand tools more as I suppose they make us stronger and more skilled, and above all it is so much fun working with them. I use technology only when it is time to shorten a project.

At first, I get confused, then I get frustrated, and all of a sudden something springs to my mind. After struggling with the new idea, if I find the solution, I will rejoice, and if not, it starts again from the beginning until I get my hands on the answer.

As I said, my family, regarding my understanding of tools and their use plus the enthusiasm, them my geography, speaking of wood and other material that came in handy later in my career, and finally the horizons that my early experiences in small workshops broadened to me.

Well, I would like to tell you about my future perspective and suppose it can help you see my background as well. One of my most important plans for the future is to create an organisational structure for the wood arts where enthusiasts can meet their needs in education, research and production. My next long-term project is to design and expose a great question that can revolutionise human visual understanding, even though I have been searching for an answer for years and have not been able to find any. To that end, I have decided to ask the question and challenge others. My next dream is to create a forest. And to start, I have made up my mind to make anyone interested in working with my organisation plant a tree in a predetermined location.

The very first thing in my point of view on this matter is that no sophisticated idea pops into our mind at once. Of course every great idea is only a simple one at the beginning, and after a long shot, it becomes an incredible design. So, we should just give every idea a go without prejudging that as a come-to-nothing one. One more thing to think of is that every path, even if it doesn't work out in the end, brings us valuable experiences which may be the key to the success of our other paths in future. In fact, life is successful in whatever way we pave, but you just need to make belief in what you do. And finally, the more you ground others, the more you yourself will learn while teaching them, and the more ideas will flash through your mind.

First of all, I should thank you for your kindness to call me a truly successful one. As for my suggestions, I would say a designer should have three parts of their being deeply conscious and in effective control, and somehow strengthen these three parts every day. These three are physical body, mind and spirit. It is best to discover your body through a physical activity such as a sport or a game and strengthen your nerve and muscle coordination, especially the coordination of the nerve and the muscles of eyes and hands. To train your mind, you can always raise challenges for yourself. For instance, the ability to teach others makes us always subject to questions of the mind and so it has to process and find answers. And as for strengthening and discovering spiritual skills, a designer can enjoy making attempts to improve the lives of others and set this up as a mission.

I habitually wake up before dawn and just in bed, reply to emails and Instagram messages and generally check things out. I routinely start off my days with a glass of warm water and taking a shower. Eating an apple a day, I walk to work, and there I have my breakfast. I work on my projects and see how personal workshop and also the institute's affairs are going in the morning. I have lunch at about 1 p.m and finish work at about 6 p.m. Getting back home, I take shower, make some plans and write some schedules, read in my field of work, have dinner and watch a film. Finally, before going to bed, I drink another glass of warm water and usually read a story to my interest in bed. And at about 11 p.m just drop off.

Through the web, via Instagram and visiting designers' personal pages or websites.

Any idea or design can be good when it comes to balancing these three: concept, application, and visual beauty.

I do the same thing on my own works. If I could see the decent harmony between these three aspects in my work, and it can fulfill my image of the design then I find it ready. There is always this desire to improve though.

orest Heart is the design he has nominated for the A Design Award in 2020. This work is the result of a great discovery in designing. This work shows we can see the nature better, think more of what we see and create links between ourselves and our nature. Along with doing a beautiful design, this is a lifestyle, and so it is my favourite design. There are moments he lives with it, and in these moments he neither wants to be overpowered by nature nor want to overcome it, but he wants to be in harmony with nature.

Michelangelo

I live in Iran and here we speak the language of poetry, walk on carpets with cosmic motifs and dwell in cities that are thousands of years old. I do my best to keep up with the thinking and cultural heritage of my country and wish my country and its history will always be one of the honours of human civilization.

I believe that my being has got three shapes, my physical body, my mind and my spirit.
Art is the absolute fashion in which these three meet so that they can unite and become dynamically active. while my hands work in harmony with my eyes and anything observed and analysed by my mind contributes to whatever it seeks, my spirit gets filled with passion for life, these all occure in the realm of arts.

There are a couple charities that I try to keep in touch, but thinking of something of my own, there is a society that we are trying to define and the moment and has already achieved to a good existence and is making its own way. We, in our team, want to create a wood artists society with our friend who have physical disabilities but have strong arms and have the chances to make great influences.

I Would like to thank the founder of A Design Award and Competition for creating this equal opportunity for all the people of the world. It is very valuable that a team dedicate their time to this great service, thank you and all your colleagues and wish you all the best.

He always had many questions. Sometimes his family or teachers would answer his questions, and most of the time no one. So, he got myself involved and started designing things to meet his questions and needs and then began making. People around him ended up praising me and he myself got to like designing.
I am habitually motivated in three fashions to get started with a work. First of all, I enjoy designing something for my own sake. Next, I fancy making stuff for others and get them surprised and smiley. And finally, when a design goes well, developes and turns out to be a great one, a glorious feeling cheers me up, and this is when I can say I design for the sake of designing.

He was first only encouraged to be a designer, by his mom and also his friends. And after some time he decided to become a designer this time himself and of course to make them happy, he tried to be a good one.

He has a huge interest in three areas of design: first, designing applications which make everything possible or easier; second, to design a new concept to inspire others into an intangible culture; and third, designing for the sake of expressing aesthetic and decorative motifs.

It is best to see what others have done and what they have made. Then think about why they did it. And after that, think more about what else could be done. And now, finally, it's time for us to do what others have not done.

A good designer finds the answers to a challenge. While a great designer raises a challenge as well as the answer.

Designing well can only help solve a problem, draw attentions to a phenomenon by making it look beautiful, just express an invisible meaning. However, a great design can completely and utterly express the beauty of a concept and solve problems in a wider fashion.

A fine design can promote the level of thinking and vision of the society, And the community that has upgraded their view would need stronger and better designs. So, investing in design means investing in the future development of our society.

Designing educational content and packages is very important for teaching to enthusiasts. I believe designing is very attractive and enjoyable to ladies, they give great importance to a fine design. Moreover, it is a smart and profitable job for the industry.

He is a 42-year-old man who would like to live until 2080 and has a 100-year plan. He hopes and strives to run his organization in a way to continue until 2120, 40 years after his death. He has designed a special award for the best works in the wood arts and is bestowed annually on the best design. These awards will be handmade sculptures, in 100 numbers, and will be themselves an antique and valuable works in the next hundred years. And everyone knows a designer made them 100 years ago with the love and hope of that day. The institution would have a garden planted by its founder and all students are required to plant a tree and care for the garden when joining. Its 100th Anniversary Celebration will be held in 2120 at its Garden, which by that time would have 100-year-old cedar trees. His institution will be a specialized wooden arts academy that collects and maintains alumni's knowlege, create educational content and educates enthusiasts, train instructors in the field of wooden arts, and also experts and curators, train skilled technicians and laborers from among trainees and create woodworking pieces of art and even tools. There will be an annual festival, in which the bests of each category are presented.
This is a summary of his dream project

They would only accept and do what can truly be a part of their being.

Leonardo Davinci
Mahmoud Farshchian
Michelangelo Beonaroti Simon
Sheikh Baha'i

Michelangelo's sculpture of David is a real masterpiece. It can seriously move or take steps.
Leonardo da Vinci's designs are inspiring as they are their forward-thinking and bold.
Mauritius Corlens Asher's designs are very challenging and appealing and one feels that there is something beyond what he really sees.

For the 2020 A Design competition, I have presented an intriguing artistic idea called Naqshbandi that Wood-pattern Tracing could be a literal equivalent of that and a work made entirely of textures and natural wood colours is included as an indication of this idea. This idea presents a new perspective for wood artists and could be the origin of a new movement in using wood as an organic, non-repetitive occurrence. The attitude of man's innate harmony with nature is the key to acquiring the knowledge of the Naqshbandi as a form of marquetry. This view invites man to the desired level of harmony with nature rather than living in an insane state which is destructive to or even indifferent about it.

The process of designing a work consists of three steps of seeing, analysing and performing. It is best to go each of these three steps on our owns to build up a real designer of ourselves. If we follow others at every turn, we will probably always be behind them.

I would grow flowers and work as a gardener.

Designing is the ability to integrate with your environment which means the impact taken or caused between human and their environment. Making a design is like a harmonious dance with life as your partner. Sometimes you dance and sometimes your partner makes you do so. Designing is to embrace the immutable things and alter the things that can be changed and this is the art of designers to distinguish the difference between these two points.

My loving and caring mother has always been my great suppoter.

19. We can claim everyone and anyone who has been with us for even a few seconds in our life time, all we see or hear and all the spaces we experience are to help us be a great designer provided that we learn our brain has only one point of consciousness and concentration and we have to take it as properly as possible.

The biggest obstacle is the lack of educational and written content in the wood arts, and next is the lack of proper copy right in Iran.

There is a so-called saying in Iran, a word for word of the fragrance does not need to be advertised for its scent! In the first step, the designer should create a complete design which is a vital part of the presentation. Secondly, it is the design itself which should be presented in the right way at the right time and in the right place.

I have already come up with an innovative idea for 2021 A Design which seems to respond to a radical challenge.
As for the challenge, there is this question that how we can integrate circular pieces of wood without creating a triangle-negative space between them, a real challenge in the world of working with wood.

There is much more beyond what humans have learned and designed. It is actually a path that is infinitely unknown and unseen. So, staying on track can be the ultimate goal of any designers.

A designer gets a lot of his motivation from people and it makes them accountable to such people. Therefore, a designer should, first of all, recognise the needs of their people and then do their best to do a design which can meet them. A designer should know it is their job to improve the quality of their life and that of others. People might even have the right to expect them to do the right thing as a designer.

A society demonstrates real improvement when its people have a happy and content heart. People should feel supported and taken care of. A fine design can create such a feeling of satisfaction and attention in the broadest form of society. It is when people see that designers have responded to their needs, even before people themselves have even realised the existence of their own needs. This creates a sense of joy and pleasure in people and creates a very desirable society.

At the moment, I am busy with preparing a motivational book ready to be printed by a publisher called Roshd in Iran. I'm preparing pictures and drawings for it. The name of this book is Maternal, and it is about how a mother can treat her child so that she can give rise to their creativity.

A design of mine called A Bird from Paradise was awarded in the 2019 competition which was very complex, challenging and enjoyable project. The design and implementation of A Bird from Paradise has a set of knowledge, artistic taste and technical ability in itself.

The industry has numerous needs, and these requests have taken a destructive course that the Earth cannot afford. It is natural that to a small workshop or factory petrochemicals are not responsive, but a huge refinery is needed. And then a refinery can produce as more much as a city or country requires, so Much of its output must be sold and consumed in whatever way that will help provide the cash flow to sustain this huge industry. This means changing people's lifestyles without the real need! Thus, we hope the future designs of the industry tend to be more in harmony with nature and with real human needs and we all should be aware of such a change.

If your meaning is a field of study, geometry and its concepts are a priority for any designers.

It depends on many points. I have the experience of accomplishing a project in one day and I also have works which have been in a nearly 4-year procedure.

First, I review all the highlights of my life making me happy. I think of each of those bright spots in years past, and the images, the emotions, the colors, the smells, and the people, until my earliest childhood memories. There's not much in my mind about it then. Now, I feel blank and can think like a free 5-year-old kid. I enjoy this freedom and start playing. My theme is about my new design project. I play so much until I eventually peak. And there is a miracle happening and what I wanted appeares.

Looking at what is present is half the sight.
The other half is seeing things that aren't ...

Of course it is!
Design has and will have a direct impact on individual, group, social, cultural and customs behavior and fianlly human history.

It is best to walk, run and exercise when one wants to strengthen themselves. But when it comes to commuting, it is best to use a car and not walk. Manual design, as well, is the best option when it is designing for the feeling and strengthening of our mind. And So, technology is the best option when it comes to controlling time and having precision and speed at the same time.

I mostly use softwares like Corel and Photoshop, and as for hardwares, scanners and printers. However, I would personally prefer to do my designs manually.

Seeing is the spirit of designing. Our eye is able to catch colours, lines and shades and lights, and a design means a purposeful layout of these inputs.

I wish someone would ask me: would you like me to tell you a secret to make your design so much better?

I think to myself how I can improve it!

In designing for industry and for applications, working with a good design team is the best option. Designing to express concepts must be done individually. The best design partner I have ever had is Shadi Habib.

Master Kamal Mir-tayebi's encouragement has had the most impact. He is an Iranian Cultural Heritage members and professors.

There are many books:
Suffering and Joy, related to Michelangelo's life
Collection of Leonardo da Vinci
Books on motif geometry
Books of Iranian and World Art History

I have a daily reading habit and believe the best way to read is to first get started and build up a personal project. Facing a difficulty, we should do our best to work it out. If the problem was beyond our common sense, we need to read and ask informative people for help. When the complete solution is achieved, we have actually learned a new skill.

Noah the Prophet
Leonardo Davinci
Sheikh Bahai (Lebanese architect and scientist)
Mani (Persian ancient artist)

The only downside is that at times I cannot make enough time for all friends and this can sometimes cause them feel upset.

I like different colours for each different pupose: yellow and black in my work environment, cream, brown, green and blue for clothes, for home, white, and by and large my most-loved colour is red. As for my favourite location, it is mountain and forest. I am mostly fond of meat and vegetables for food. My dearest season is spring and best-liked
brand is Mercedes-Benz.

The Flower on the Carpet

Once upon a time, on an unrepeatable / unforgettable day, at primary school, the teacher made us a hand work, a home, fitting some pieces from a packet of sweets, using some orange sewing tape with blue fringe, some dried dill as the grass of the lawn in the back yard, pistachio shells as the stones on the border of the lawn, beans and chickpeas as the gravel path surrounding the small pond in the yard, and an offcut of cardboard from a box as the walls, the door and the roof. Through the sole big window of the card-made house, its floor is visible, it is bare. It could do with a carpet! I eye the lines of the carpet on the bare floor, from the outer border to its most beautiful flower. My hand hurts; the carpet is too firm! The scissors are sharp. However, they meet with terrible strain. Mum shows up … A flower has been picked up from her dowry's carpet, to lay on the floor of the card-made home's room. She freaks out but she also drops into my home.

A story by Mohammad-ali Vadood
From the story collection "Maternal"
August 1, 2011

When I was a kid, we were taught at school to build a house with cardboard cans. I got to like it and did it at home. When making the cardboard house was over I thought it needed a rug. I picked up a pair big scissors and cut a flower from the rug, putting it on the floor of the house as its rug. That rug was my mother's wedding gift. When she saw the thing I had done with the rug, she was shocked, but said nothing and played with me as a guest at the cardboard house.

I start my mornings by looking after the plants and the trees in my open patio and that's incredible. Fine music, and the smell of wood are marvelous. And I believe I will soon surprise my audience and my fans with a new work.

Yes, they usually wanted all my paintings and crafts.

There are many things in the world that the human has not perceived or realised yet. And there are things they may understand or get a feel of however can not express. I believe our being is formed on the basis of a triangle, and each phenomenon evolves when it has these three dimensions. There is still so much to do in the area of ​​knowledge and design that only one dimension or two we can claim are already found. The attention that humans drew to points, in its geometrical terms, in order to do a work of design and convey concepts can be cited as a notable example here. It took them millenia to make use of lines, then geometrical shapes, followed by patterns and then conceptual patterns. In our time, there are concepts which can not be expressed through any of these methods, and so it is time a fresh visual phenomenon emerged and a new era in designing commerced. Human may be able to assist such a phenomenon with its earlier occurence.

The greatest gratitude of the audience is to try to understand the meaning and also the purpose of a work of design. This is the deepest wish for a designer.

Well, I am the chief manager at Vadood's Wood Arts which is a complex art and cultural institution. We work with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in the research department and with different universities in education. We restore artworks for museums and collectibles and organise annual exhibitions by creating specific artworks.
For museums and collectibles we repair artworks
And we organize annual exhibitions by creating specific artworks

There are times I gets a kind of feeling that sounds quite confusing and different, without I knowing what it exactly is. I feel as I may be aroused by what I have seen, heard, read, touched or even smelled, or any other stimulants. Whatever way it strikes me, it grows inside me, makes me involved all my time, and when it is the time, it rises out from my inside and gets born. I find it a fresh design with a happy birth.

I go on with life; use good things that have been made before, and when those can no longer be the help to the things I want to do, I get started. Sometimes I design a new tool or a new technique. I might even create a new design to express an unknown feeling at times. I adore doing any designs for the sake of life.

Forest Heart is the design he has nominated for the A Design Award in 2020. This work is the result of a great discovery in designing. This work shows we can see the nature better, think more of what we see and create links between ourselves and our nature. Along with doing a beautiful design, this is a lifestyle, and so it is my favourite design. There are moments he lives with it, and in these moments he neither wants to be overpowered by nature nor want to overcome it, but he wants to be in harmony with nature.

For the interior of the car Unimak, one of the products of a Benz company owned by a tuning group in Iran, he designed the console, dashboard, and other parts with beech wood which which turned out to be very interesting.

Of course, wood has everything for me at the same time, but I'm also interested in metal, and especially when these two (wood and metal) are interconnected, there could be certain tools which can help us do whatever we wish. I like hand tools more as I suppose they make us stronger and more skilled, and above all it is so much fun working with them. I use technology only when it is time to shorten a project.

Usually when something is not so clear to me and I think I can not do it, or it sounds weird to me, I just get started thinking, experimenting, doing everything about it until I get to feel that I can do it, no matter how small, then all of a sudden something intruiging happens and things begin to go well. In the end, when the job is done in its best way, everyone says, oh what creativity!

Well, I look at the designs others have made and sound original to me. Then try to figure out what has been the path which has come to that notion and then say Bravo! It is the time I think to myself how I could improve that design and do my best to find a way and do something noone else has actually done to it. It may be related to the beauty of the work, to its use or its concept.

At first, I get confused, then I get frustrated, and all of a sudden something springs to my mind. After struggling with the new idea, if I find the solution, I will rejoice, and if not, it starts again from the beginning until I get my hands on the answer.

The very first thing is that I will find myself really, really excited and would like to show it to others. But after a while, I get to think well, I have to do better.

Well, it's a long story, a full life story. However, in short I can say we should look at what nature does for as long as we can, and of that think about points which give us joy. We should keep watching until we start feeling we know evey sinlge part of it. It is when we will find one thing more attractive than others. In the second step, we should think of everything attractive we have discovered and start imitating nature. For instance, paint it, or make a replica. As for the final step, when we have actually perceived the beauty and attractiveness of something, we will be able to dominate it, and integrate a couple of such gorgous stuff with each other and make a fresh extract. Seeing, analysing and experiencing are to me the three sides of the triangle of success in design.

Concept, application, and visual beauty. Any idea or design can be good when it comes to balancing these three.

A designer is, in fact, someone who can see things that do not exist but can actually have being. A designer recognises the needs of their community and improves the environment by discovering solutions to those problems.

When I look at the path design has paved so far and its impact on human life, I feel human beings are defeated by nature, and this is nature having guided their way of life. Then man, with his understanding, tried to harmonise with nature, and succeeded. The harmony with nature gave man the power to overcome. However, he used this power in the wrong way. Humans have been designing for years only to keep getting over nature which is a win-lose approach. Whereas, we should go back to the harmony with nature as it is a win-win approach. Designing to overcome will just lead to the destruction of nature and this is of course wrong. I can only wish the future of design would go in harmony with nature and it would be a basic attitude.
Amen!

My last exhibition was at the Academy of Arts and Culture of Iran. I hope my next exhibition will be held at the A Design Award in Italy.

Sometimes I get inspired by my problems or others' or by the beautiful spots I catch from nature. And there are times that concepts and emotions interacted with people help me.

I tend to have a naturalistic style in my design. I believe the foundation of everything is there in nature. The main feature and attitude of my design is to show a new horizon of ability and path to a harmony with pristine nature in order to achieve visual expression.

I live in Iran and here we speak the language of poetry, walk on carpets with cosmic motifs and dwel in cities that are thousands of years old. I do my best to keep up with the thinking and cultural heritage of my country and wish my country and its history will always be one of the honours of human civilization.

I would rather make a contract at a specific time.

The most important thing for a designer is to make their design and thought understood. This adds to the designer's passion for more work and more creativity. The feeling of satisfaction and content would be the best pay to a designer. Companies first need to know exactly what they want and then find the right designer to help them meet their needs. To do that they should make attempts to get to know such a right designer after getting their hands on them and also to realise them. In this way this company will always have a bubbling spring of ideas.

The design I have presented is the result of a new approach and style in wood marquetry. In earlier time, more attention was paid to the colours and tonalities of the wood used in maquetry. Each piece was selected as a stain of colour, cut, and would make an image along with other pieces. In the way that I have presented here, in addition to the natural colour and tone of the wood, there is a special emphasis on other visual phenomena of this natural supply such as lines, textures, transparency and opacity. In my method which called Naqshbandi (Wood-pattern Tracing), these phenomena get to move from each piece to others. For instance, the lines and waves of a beech tree wood in one piece should be along the natural lines of its surrounding pieces of other woods so that it can help the viewer pay less attention to the fragmentation of the image. I would say Naqshbandi demonstrates the natural character of the wood in the best possible way. The title of this work which is in fact here as a manifest of Naqshbandi, is Forest Heart and that is to say it hails from the heart of forest.

1. Architecture
2. Kitchen
3. Library
4. Carpet
5. Furniture

I habitually wake up before dawn and just in bed, reply to emails and Instagram messages and generally check things out. I routinely start off my days with a glass of warm water and taking a shower. Eating an apple a day, I walk to work, and there I have my breakfast. I work on my projects and see how personal workshop and also the institute's affairs are going in the morning. I have lunch at about 1 p.m and finish work at about 6 p.m. Getting back home, I take shower, make some plans and write some schedules, read in my field of work, have dinner and watch a film. Finally, before going to bed, I drink another glass of warm water and usually read a story to my interest in bed. And at about 11 p.m just drop off.

The very first thing in my point of view on this matter is that no sophisticated idea pops into our mind at once. Of course every great idea is only a simple one at the beginning, and after a long shot, it becomes an incredible design. So, we should just give every idea a go without prejudging that as a come-to-nothing one. One more thing to think of is that every path, even if it doesn't work out in the end, brings us valuable experiences which may be the key to the success of our other paths in future. In fact, life is successful in whatever way we pave, but you just need to make belief in what you do. And finally, the more you ground others, the more you yourself will learn while teaching them, and the more ideas will flash through your mind.

A designer always has a varied and exciting life to discover. Never does their life get dull or like a mundane existence. They always provide a solution to the challenges of their own life and that of others. They are loveable fellows. A designer always has a sense of independence, usefulness, and value as an individual and enjoys the ability to express their ideas. However, there are usually others who get more out of a designer's ideas, by stealing and copying. Another drawback could be the thing that a professional designer like a soldier or an athlete is sometimes too busy with ideas and performing tham so their family life gets affected, and it's not nice. So, by and large, if their community does not understand the ideas of a designer, they will fall into great sadness.

In the heart of every seed is a robust tree. And each forest has started off with a tree.

I would say a designer should have three parts of their being deeply conscious and in effective control, and somehow strengthen these three parts every day. These three are physical body, mind and spirit. It is best to discover your body through a physical activity such as a sport or a game and strengthen your nerve and muscle coordination, especially the coordination of the nerve and the muscles of eyes and hands. To train your mind, you can always raise challenges for yourself. For instance, the ability to teach others makes us always subject to questions of the mind and so it has to process and find answers. And as for strengthening and discovering spiritual skills, a designer can enjoy making attempts to improve the lives of others and set this up as a mission.

I believe in the magic of hand and pencil design. I am greatly fond of this way and find it really inspiring. Another thing I use as a software to speed up my visualisation process is mechanical pencil. I also make a maquette of my idea at times to have an initial form of that.

I see a design from idea to implementation, like a plant as it grows. I plant the seed and wait for it to grow naturally. I do not have to pay for it every minute as it can itself grow smart in me. I take care of it between my daily routine and only when it needs care. I consider it to be an integral part of my life. I live in the garden of my ideas, plans and designs.

It depends. I have had a day's experience of implementing and accomplishing an idea and also have an idea I have been turning over for 5 years.

My most critical question is whether nature has first made the appeal to reason, or reason to nature.

Establishing and founding a dedicated complex cultural and wood arts institute

My business relationship with customers is divided into three categories, research, education and production. Some of my clients are organizations with whom I have make research contracts, such as the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Science, and the Visual Arts Association. I have training programs as well with some of my clients, such as the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Culture and the Arts, and private classes, as well as classes at the old Kamal al-Molk Academy. And finally, I work in the production sector with museums and private collections, as well as producing specialised tools and providing educational packages.

I am interested in designing and inventing tools the most because I believe that tools and human beings are moving on like a see-saw! Man makes tools, and tools make man skilled. And then man makes more advanced tools, and again these more advanced tools make man more advanced.
And this is driving the process of human civilization

One of my most important plans for the future is to create an organisational structure for the wood arts where enthusiasts can meet their needs in education, research and production. My next long-term project is to design and expose a great question that can revolutionise human visual understanding, even though I have been searching for an answer for years and have not been able to find any. To that end, I have decided to ask the question and challenge others. My next dream is to create a forest. And to start, I have made up my mind to make anyone interested in working with my organisation plant a tree in a predetermined location.

I am more alone in creating artworks but team up in the research, training and manufacturing departments.

I do not think we should talk about a design until it is done mainly because the excitement of the unseen design involves much of the designer's energy and motivation to move forward. However, I have an idea which needs international support, and I wish someone would read this and take a step. The thing is I have made an attractive wooden set of fountain pens. As it is to my plan, through the UN, kings, presidents and world leaders will all be invited to write a short text on world peace at the UN's annual meeting in a handmade design notebook. And this book will be called the Millennium of Peace. Fountain pens under the name of these paticipented names are kept in a museum next to the "Millennium Peace Book". And after that, the book would be widely published and distributed around the world so everyone could know what the countries' heads think of peace. This may help unite politicians' ideas to build a better world.

You can find me on the internet via this instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/mohamadalivadood/?hl=en

I Would like to thank the founder of A Design Award and Competition for creating this equal opportunity for all the people of the world. It is very valuable that a team dedicate their time to this great service, thank you and all your colleagues and wish you all the best.

In many common approaches to marquetry, wood effectively is devalued to a color palette. But for me, each piece of wood has an independent visual language, one that was formed in the nature even before the artist was born. So, on selecting the woods, I had an approach based on three fundamental characteristics: color, texture, and pattern. Along with these three characteristics, I also considered other features such as color contrast, complementary colors, and color tonality. However, the main difference was that I did not try to use wood to add color; rather, I tried to reveal the natural capacities of wood itself. Furthermore, an important procedure in creating this marquetry work was accepting the unexpected. For instance, I initially decided to have the bird yellow, with only the tail remaining like the initial image. But then I came across pieces of wood whose natural patterns wonderfully resembled the patterns of the ending feathers of the wing. Although their color was close to the copper tonality, the visual power of these natural patterns was fine enough to make me abandon my earlier decision. In another step, a crack resulted from the tree's natural healing process had completely naturally shaped a pattern like the bird's shoulder, creating a sense of volume and prominence without any human intervention. Such moments are very important to me, for they show that the artist is not always the sole creator of the image; at times, the nature, too, plays an active role in the process of creation. For this reason, I believe that in Naqshbandi, the nature is not simply the subject of the work; rather, it is one of the co-creators of the work.

The "double-cut" technique was the result of an effort to overcome limitations of conventional methods in marquetry where pieces are commonly cut independently based on pre-designed patterns and then placed next to each other without requiring artists to interact creatively with their work. Besides, although such a method could sound very efficient at work, it can generally limit the capacities of wood to react freely to natural circumstances, and sometimes subtle traces of the cutting lines remain noticeable at the joining borders of the pieces. On the other hand, by the "double-cut" technique, each piece complements the previous pieces, and simultaneously each cut is in line with the border of the new piece. As a result, pieces fit in the most precisely and without noticeable lines left. In other words, each cut that is made by the artist is considered twice in the work procedures. If pattern-based methods are mostly designed to reproduce an image, the "double-cut" technique has been developed to discover an image. However, technical accuracy is not the main feature that makes the "double-cut" significantly different. Eliminating total dependence on fixed cutting patterns allows the artist to look back at previous cuts and pieces repeatedly throughout the work procedures and make new decisions based on newly formed wood patterns and also based on the connections that emerge between the wood pieces; rather than deciding based on pre-designed picture patterns. In fact, this technique was developed to meet a philosophical need: If the image is to be discovered from among wood patterns, the process of work must also allow for discovery. From this point of view, not only is the "double-cut" an executive innovation, it is also a necessary technical tool for realizing Naqshbandi's view.

To begin with, the word "create" is used in this question while if I were to describe my personal experience in this work honestly, I would have to say that while doing "Forest Heart", I played the role of an observer, explorer, and interpreter rather than a creator. As for the calculated approach and the mathematical precision, the main work was about realizing the material behavior, the geometry of cuts, forming connections, and the visual impact. But the most important part was observation; observing what nature had recorded in the wood before we were even there. During recent years, we have occasionally encountered the concept of "co-creation" in contemporary arts and design literature; an idea that claims creativity is not only the product of human will, but also the result of their interaction with other complex systems. For me, wood is one of these systems. Each piece of wood holds a set of biological, environmental, and historical decisions. So when I work, I leave some of the decision-making process to what the material reveals to me. For this reason, in Naqshbandi, the artistic intuition lies not in imposing a predetermined image, but in recognizing and reading the hidden relationships that already exist in the material. Then, if I were to summarize this process in one single sentence, I would say that "I do not create the image but that I discover it within the wood heart". From this perspective, "Forest Heart" is more than a simple wood picture, it is an exposition of connections that have existed in the nature since before my presence in the world, and I have only interpreted them into a language understandable to human vision.

This question actually addresses the core of my research and artistic activity. In many international references and associations, marquetry as an art is known as "painting with wood". Such a definition is entirely understandable from a historical point of view since in fact, a significant part of what we might consider the marquetry tradition today, has relied on selecting natural wood colors to recreate an image. However, the question is, if the best version of an image exists in the original photograph or painting, why we should ever try to recreate it in wood. Looking for an answer to this question led to the establishment of the "Naqshbandi" style. In Naqshbandi, wood is not a color palette, but a visual language. By applying conventional methods, the natural patterns and textures of wood turn into pieces that can simply reproduce an image whereas in Naqshbandi, it is reversed, which means the image is used to reveal the visual capacities of wood. For this reason, I do not think of Naqshbandi as a simply new technique in marquetry, but as a proposal to rethink the nature of marquetry. A proposal that raises new questions like:Is wood only a palette of colors? Can it ever hold meanings, memories, and narratives? If we agree with the second response, then the marquetry transforms from "painting with wood" to "reading wood". In my view, this could be the main difference between Naqshbandi and other common approaches to marquetry.

The answer to this question can be sought at the crossing lines between art, the physics of light, and the biology of wood. A significant part of what we perceive as the color or the texture of wood is in fact the result of the link between light and how cells form in wood. Throughout years of studying and hands-on experience, I have learned that the angle of cuts can dramatically change the behavior of light. In some angles, more light is reflected, creating a kind of glow, while in other angles, the same pieces looks dull and dark. Furthermore, the position of annual rings, the direction of growth, the texture of fibers, and even some biological processes such as the healing of natural wounds in trees can create different visual qualities in the wood. In Naqshbandi, these features are studied not as incidental events, but as core elements of visual expression. For this reason, the depth found in "Forest Heart" is not the result of any added physical volume, but rather the outcome of the conscious use of light, textures, and natural patterns in the woods. That is to say, I have not tried to add a third dimension to the surface of my work; rather, I have tried to reveal this capacity from within the heart of my material itself. Such a view brings up once again the same fundamental question that what wood has to offer before the artist becomes involved in the co-creation. I would say an important part of my work in Naqshbandi is looking for the answer to this question.

One of the most important differences between my view and the common view on wood is that I do not consider wood to be a completely silent and static material. In wood biology, many of colors, textures, and changes are the result of complex connections between the plant growth, environmental conditions, fungi, moisture, and time. Each tree is a kind of biological archive that records its life history in its body. For instance, some species of symbiotic fungi can produce unique color patterns in wood under certain conditions. Factors such as humidity, temperature, and nutrients directly influence this process. While doing research, I found out that understanding such processes can expand the range of visual possibilities in using wood. As an instance, the maple wood — which originally features a light, yellowish base — can, under certain conditions, take on shades of gray, blue, or green. To me, such transformations are not merely changes in color; rather, they are part of the material’s organic narrative. This view can bring Naqshbandi closer to areas beyond traditional marquetry, to fields in which biology, time, and nature also participate in the formation of the image. Therefore, as I work, wood is not just a raw material, but a creature that has been narrating its own story for years before entering the artist's workshop.

Perhaps my major discovery was that wood is much more complex than is typically considered in marquetry. Through study and practical experience, I came to the conclusion that wood has at least nine independent visual features, each of which can play a role in the formation of the image, including: color, pattern, texture, fiber direction, light, darkness, growth pattern, natural repair effects, and connections resulting from cutting angles. But what surprised me most was that these features often have an influence beyond human imagination and planning. In fact, in many cases, the final work is not the result of a precise performance of an initial idea, but rather the outcome of a dialogue between the artist and the material. Such an experience made me believe that creativity to some extent exists in the nature, and not just in the human mind. These days, even in some new computational design research, such as projects in studying the role and texture of wood in marquetry images, we are witnessing a growing interest and consideration in these capacities. For me, finishing "Forest Heart" was more than the end of another project, it was rather the beginning of a journey to study the unknown potentials of wood.

What I feel is that marquetry, as an art, currently stands at a pivotal moment in its history. On one hand, there are invaluable, centuries-old traditions that have given this art the opportunity to be performed with skills, precision, and aesthetic quality. On the other hand, new technologies, academic research, and contemporary perspectives are raising fresh questions regarding the very nature of this art. I believe the fundamental question regarding the future of marquetry is not how to find a wider range of wood colors. The principal question is if wood is merely a palette of colors, or it can also convey meaning, memory, and narrative? In many international texts, marquetry is known as "painting with wood." While this definition remains valuable, I think there is another horizon awaiting this art. Perhaps the future of marquetry lies not merely in "painting with wood," but in "reading wood." That is to say, learning how to follow what nature has left in the texture, color, patterns, and memories of wood, and to interprete it into some visual language. If Naqshbandi can play even a small part in open up this conversation within the global marquetry community, I will consider it a success far more valuable than any awards. For my primary goal is not to provide an answer, but to pose a new question.

Before coming up with the idea of Naghshbandi, and establishing and evolving it as a style in marquetry, I imagined that one should create the image they have in mind using wood. To me, wood was a beautiful and valuable material, yet it remained a substance that had to serve my ideas. "Forest Heart" changed this view of mine. Along the way, I gradually came to realize that nature is not merely a source of raw materials, but it also has its own words to say. Today, more than ever, I feel that part of a wood artist's mission is to listen; to listen to what time has recorded in the rings of growth of a tree, to listen to the wounds a tree has healed, and to listen to the colors that have shaded in silence over the years. This experience changed my relationship with wood from one based on control to one based on collaboration. If I were to summarize this change in a single sentence, I would say "I used to strive to master wood and its nature; today, however, I seek to collaborate with it." And perhaps this is the very essence of my work as a wood artist that I no longer strive to compel nature to express what is in my mind; instead, I seek to read and recount what nature has already left in the memory of wood. In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to formally share the artistic statement of the Naqshbandi style in marquetry. The Naqshbandi Style Manifesto: "From the representation of nature to its revelation" [Naqshbandi: The art of reading nature’s memory and narrating it in human language] Naqshbandi is a theoretical and practical approach to redefining the relationship between material, image, and artistic creation. In the conventional approach to marquetry, wood is primarily employed as a palette of colors, and the objective is to represent a predetermined image as accurately as possible. In this process, the natural characteristics of the wood serve the purpose of reproducing the image. Naqshbandi begins with this different question that if the color, texture, lines, and natural patterns of wood possess independent visual values, can they be transformed from secondary elements into primary elements of creating an image? Such an approach is grounded in the idea that wood is not merely a material, but an information-bearing biological system. Every tree records its growth history, environmental tensions, wounds, healing processes, climatic changes, and the passage of time within its structure. What appears as patterns, textures, or lines is, in fact, the visible reflection of this natural memory. In Naqshbandi, rather than imposing an image upon the material, the artist engages in reading and interpreting this memory. The image is not the starting point but the outcome of a process of discovery. Naqshbandi rests on three principles: the genuineness of the nature, the natural characteristics of the wood constituting the fundamental basis of the visual expression in the work, rather than serving merely as decorative elements; the co-creation with the material, wood not being passive means of expression but playing an active role in shaping the work - An artistic creation emerges from the interaction between the artist and the material's intrinsic potential - ; and discovery over reproduction, not defining the goal to produce a wooden replica of an existing image but to reveal the hidden connections between natural textures and human narratives. Naqshbandi is also grounded in the scientific study of wood—including an understanding of light behavior within the texture, the impact of cutting angles on the appearance of patterns, the role of biological processes in shaping colors and patterns, and the visual potential in growth rings, healed wounds, and the tree's formation. From this point of view, nature is not merely the subject of the work but simultaneously its material, source of information, and partner in the artistic creation. Naqshbandi does not seek to reject the traditions of marquetry, but to strive to introduce a fresh question in the conversations in this art that is marquetry only the art of "painting with wood," or can it also be the art of "reading wood"? In the world of Naqshbandi, every piece of wood bears a unique and unrepeatable narrative, for no two trees possess the same memory. Naqshbandi is an invitation to read the memory of nature and interprete it into a visual language—an endeavor to move beyond the mere representation of nature toward its revelation. - Mohammadali Vadood

In traditional Iranian arts, there is an important concept called 'enchantment of creating'. It refers to the invisible energy that is transmitted to the audience from works of handicrafts, especially wooden works and Persian carpets, and gives a sense of life and constancy to a work. This feature makes the audience feel that the work is growing and evolving and that they wants to interact with it, make changes in it in their mind or even create a similar work themselves. Enchantment, in fact, is the extension of the work's life in the audience's imagination and creativity. The coexistence of different types of traditional arts, according to the concept of enchantment, can create a complex effect and be manifested a single work.

It is said and experienced through history that human always feels weaker than the stronger state he is actually able to experience. Therefore, throughout the history of civilization, we have come to this conclusion that we always need a driving factor to dare to step beyond the safe edge of knowledge, and this factor is our 'belief'. In fact, these are beliefs that help us strive for something that may not have a result, and it is generally this effort that expands the circle of human civilization. Among the interesting and evocative belief systems, there are religious beliefs that are mixed with mythical and provocative illusions of reality and strongly arouse the imagination of artists. The character of Abraham and the religious legends related to him are always inspiring and exciting for me.

In order to reach a better understanding of what I want to explain, I suggest seeing my other work titled:A Thousand and One Night that won the A' Design Award in 2022 in the handicrafts section. In fact, in that project, I have prepared a table of wood colors that complement each other. This table provides an identification code for colors that helps to see the hue and essence of each color better. For example, the yellow color of boxwood dramatically makes the brown theme of jujube appear red. This is while jujube on its own and/or with other colors of wood appears as a shade of brown.

The shells of the Persian Gulf are the result of a biological process on the ocean floor, sediments that are formed over many years in one of the wildest and most pristine ecosystems in the world. The iridescence and curious depth of this material after the final polishing is always inspiring to me and I always feel as if something is staring back at me in that unreachable depth. For the cause of this feeling, I decided to make the eyes of The Bird from Paradise based on this personal experience and create a similar experience for the audience.

During the years that I have lived in the atmosphere of Iranian arts, I have realized that the concept of Iranian art is based on 'internalization' through a kind of self-cultivation and using cultural customs. It means that the Iranian artist must first achieve a kind of comparative power through 'theoretical exercise' by watching a great deal of other people's works, so that they can take the next step, which is 'practical exercise'. At this step, the artist chooses the best pattern, motif or model by using the comparative value they have formed in their mind and then repeat and imitate it. After that, using these achievements, they instinctively take the third step, which is the 'imagination exercise' step. The Bird from Paradise is a manifestation of the same process: watching the many Muqarnas in Iranian architecture, trying to understand and reconstruct them, and then discovering the geometric secrets and completely mastering transforming them based on my own imagination.

In the course of my research and experiences, I realized that Muqarnas is actually the volume form of two-dimensional geometric patterns. Therefore, in the part of the crown, I decided to implement this concept objectively, the movement of the straight lines that creates 'knot' motifs, then the breaking of the area of ​​the knots that creates the levels, and finally the movement of the levels in the dimension of height so that it can lead to the headquarters of Muqarnas. In fact, in this part of the sculpture, the audience can observe and understand the different course of the point, line, surface and form in Muqarnas.

The most important feature of The Bird from Paradise could be its compound effect through the 'enchantment of creating', that is, this effect extends well in the audience's mind and stimulates their imagination. I have received interesting reactions from the audience, such as:I wish I had made it.I wish I could have it.I want to make something like that.I think it would be better if it was made this way.This impact from The Bird from Paradise during years has inspired many people to learn the different arts used in this work, and this is very pleasant to me.

This prestigious award made The Bird from Paradise better known and distinguished. The special attention that this award created for The Bird from Paradise as a leading work internationally recognized has been the motivation of many people who are interested in traditional Iranian arts, especially wooden arts since they started to realize that this art can be a way to participate in the international arena and prestigious events.

I believe that handicrafts are the first purposeful activity of humans to improve their lifestyle, An activity that made humans stand out from other creatures, make tools and take a different approach in facing challenges of life next to their natural environment. Handicrafts inspired human to try to understand and describe his surroundings and then art was born. Handicrafts motivated human to try to make more use of natural laws and then the industrial revolution took place. And today handicrafts as a 'identity-founded discourse' can once again come to the aid of mankind and in the age of artificial intelligence and identity crisis, by providing the human with the necessary platform for 'creating experience' help them reach the sense of security, growth and usefulness.