KARACHI: A panel of distinguished individuals went down memory lane to pay tribute to artist Imran Mir — a founding member of Indus Valley School (IVS) — in the IVS courtyard on Friday evening.

Mir passed away on Oct 28, 2014.

Architect Shahid Abdulla was the first speaker. He started off by saying that Mir was his design guru and that he had never in his life met anyone with more humility, creativity and exceptional sense of humour. Addressing the students present on the premises, he said if they didn’t have a sense of humour, they should drop out of the school.

Abdulla recalled the time when Mir and his wife, Nighat, called on him to design their house. Despite being an artist, he wanted a simple house, someone that a maali (gardener) would have made. This helped Abdulla understand that simplicity and honesty in a design never aged. Reverting to the late artist’s humble disposition, he said he must have designed 3,000 logos for various clients but wouldn’t have charged a penny for 2,500 of them. “Money is important to survive but shouldn’t be your goal,” he remarked.

Graphic designer Tanaaz Minwalla said Mir had a rich understanding of branding and communication design. She named quite a few companies and institutions – MCB, MeatOne, Tapal, etc — for whom he successfully ran campaigns and brought about a broad-based understanding of designs. She said that in the process he brought a major change in the attention given to branding of institutions, shops, buildings, etc.

Minwalla fondly reminisced about the days when she worked alongside Mir — the days when curiosity and adventure in advertising were the order of the day. She told the audience that unlike present where everyone had access to the Internet ‘we had nothing’. The Goethe Institut had 12 books and the America Centre three. But Mir had a very good library and he always shared what he knew. Among the many things that she learned from him was team work. Another important thing that he taught her was that never settle for second best, stare at the design for long and improvise upon it.

Minwalla said Mir and she shared the love for classical and jazz music, which was why the place where they worked was always buzzing. He was a moody man who could be easily hurt. She called his wife, Nighat, his backbone, both at home and at work.

Former senator and information minister Javed Jabbar traced his association with Mir on three levels. First, as the husband of the girl whom he had known from school days. It led him to remember the Qazi family and their three daughters, one of which was Nighat. Second, when during the first Pakistan Advertising Congress in 1979 he got to know Mir who had made the logo for the congress. Third, Mir as an artist.

Jabbar said Mir was a mysterious artist. He was struck by the benevolent contradiction in his personality, implying that he came from the loud world of advertising and at the same time was developing into an artist belonging to a realm where silence was required. He called Mir an artist of secrecy as his mind was inexplicable.

Prof Shehnaz Ismail introduced the panellists to the audience. She also read out a letter written to Imran Mir by his teacher Rashid Arshad.

In the end, a short video on the life and work of the artist was shown.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2015

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