About

Innovation is our act of resistance. We stand with the founders, artists and makers building what comes next in Iran: not inherited, not imposed, humanly designed.

Manifesto

Iran was never given the chance to shape its own contemporary identity. Modernity was imported. Our recent history is shaped by imposition, by narratives forced from above, and today we live in the ruins of those top-down decisions.

Yet beneath the chaos, life goes on. A wave of visionaries refuses to give up. They live by what they believe in and build what we deserve, laying the foundations of an authentic contemporary identity from the inside out.

We stand with them. We help them reach globally resonant quality by navigating uncertainty, uncovering their true values, and bringing their vision to life through strategies, brands, products and experiences that make an impact.

Tehran

Tehran lives two lives. On the surface: a patchwork of broken ideas, forced narratives and recycled ideologies. Behind the walls, in private and semi-private spaces, a generation of creators, artists and business owners is building movements. They have world-class talent. What they lack is support.

Women are the clearest sign of this shift, living by their aspirations against constant pressure. This second Tehran is alive, feminine and authentic. Tehran Design Lab, as another privately owned act, stands with it.

Design

In a country this unpredictable, it is easy to fall into survival mode: short-term wins, surface decisions, borrowed solutions. That is how soul, taste and the future are lost.

Design is the alternative. Not just a craft but a way of thinking: it listens, questions, experiments and adapts. Where identity is dictated from above, design helps people shape their own from below.

Lab

A lab is a place for experimentation. It welcomes mess and invites uncertainty. Failure is data, every prototype is a question, and every process is a kind of research.

In a culture that fears deviation, a lab dares to say: let's try. We build things slightly ahead of their time. That is what makes them contemporary.

The cat

Cats live on Tehran's streets without permission. They move on their own terms, adapt to chaos and survive in every corner of the city, like the people who keep creating here despite every constraint.

The cat is also our metaphor for innovation: curious, playful, never taking the obvious path, and always landing on its feet.

Approach

  1. Cross-Disciplinary
    & Systemic

    We do not believe in rigid academic boundaries. The world is too complex, and most real problems are systemic by nature. The kind of coherent experience we aim to create depends on many interconnected layers, so our approach brings together perspectives from the design industry, storytelling, branding, marketing, systems thinking, and innovation practice. Instead of staying inside disciplinary silos, we integrate them into one working meta-framework.

  2. Problem-Centric
    & Evidence-Based

    Our starting point is always the problem, in all its forms. Sometimes it is a product issue, sometimes a cultural tension, and sometimes it is directly tied to business metrics and performance. We begin with deep investigation, using different research tools to understand what is actually happening before proposing solutions. That process produces evidence we can use to make better decisions, rather than relying on taste, trends, or assumptions.

  3. Strategic
    & Pragmatic

    We do not see design as an artistic layer added on top of a business. For us, it is a strategic tool for solving real problems and making something in the business, and in the world around it, work better in a lasting way, even if the change is small. We care deeply about knowledge, theory, and academic thinking, but never at the cost of losing contact with reality. Ideas only matter when they lead to action, solve something meaningful, and create movement in the real world.

  4. Human-Centered
    & Culturally Informed

    We know “human-centered” has become an overused industry phrase, but for us it still points to something real: human and cultural forces sit at the deepest layers of most problems. Whether we are working on branding, UX, communication, or offering design, we keep those layers in view. We pay close attention to behavior, perception, motivation, identity, and the cultural context shaping how people interpret and respond to what is built.

  5. Contemporary in
    Mind & Taste

    We see contemporaneity as a serious question, especially in a place like Iran. Not just in art or design, but in the human being: how people live, think, feel, and make meaning now. Our work has to stay in active contact with the present, with living knowledge and current sensibility. For us, a strong response to today’s conditions should feel contemporary, slightly ahead of its moment, but still grounded in reality. We avoid regression in both perspective and taste.

  6. Exploratory
    & Experimental

    We believe what makes solutions contemporary is exploration, critique, and the willingness to push boundaries forward. Our studio works as a lab for discovering and testing different responses to a problem. Sometimes that leads to bold, experimental moves; sometimes it leads to more restrained decisions, depending on the brand and the situation. But even the more conservative outcomes should come from real searching, testing, and iteration, whether conceptual or practical.

Team

A small team in Tehran, working across strategy, research and design.

  • Alireza EbrahimkhaniCo-founder, Art Director
  • Kasra GhavidelCo-founder, Design Strategist
  • Shabnam MoazamiStudio Manager
  • Pooya PeiraviGraphic Designer
  • Sahar BahramiGraphic Designer
  • Nima HamediIndustrial Designer
  • Samaneh RezaeizadehContent Creator