An ancient myth, an Achaemenid capital, and a drawing made by a student in 1961.
Six parts of the Homā, and three different centuries. The myth is ancient. The stone it was drawn from is Achaemenid. The line you are wearing was drawn in 1961 by a student who won a competition.
What you seeA raptor's head, turned back over the shoulder, eye and beak reduced to a few strokes.
What is knownThe posture comes from the Persepolis capital, where paired bird heads face outward from the top of a column. The 1961 drawing keeps the turn of the neck and drops almost everything else.
What you seeA fine comb of parallel lines along the back of the head.
What is knownThe ridging is carved detail on the stone original, simplified here into a rhythm of strokes — the kind of decision that only reads correctly at the size of an aircraft tail.
What you seeWings swept back, drawn as a handful of tapering lines rather than feathers.
What is knownThis is the most modern part of the mark and the least ancient. It is a 1960s aviation line, and it is why the design won awards.
What you seeA single closed curve, unbroken, carrying the whole weight of the figure.
What is knownThe mark works because almost nothing is described. There is no plumage, no foot, no ground.
What you seeA bird that is not standing on anything.
What is knownThis is the myth, not a design choice. The Homā never lands. It is said to live its entire life in flight, and the tradition holds that its shadow falling across a person marks them out for sovereignty. A bird with nowhere to perch is the point.
What you seeA clean modern logotype.
What is knownIt began as an Achaemenid column capital, and two Homā capitals were recovered from the ruins of Persepolis. In 1961 Edward Zohrabian, an art student, entered a public competition announced in Kayhan and Ettelaʿat and judged by the College of Fine Arts. He drew the bird from that capital. His entry won, and then won again internationally.
Twenty-five centuries separate the capital at Persepolis from the drawing on this shirt, and the bird crossed that distance without ever touching the ground.
