Ardeshir Mohassas was born on Sep 9th 1938 in a family of a poet mother and a judge father in Rasht. His parents were both wealthy people of Lahijan and he also grew up there. After studying law in Tehran and working in the government for a while, he chose design as a job and published his works in magazines and books. After Iranian Islamic Revolution, he migrated to New York.
He was only 3 years old when he went to watch a famous TV series “Nazi’s disaster” with his older brother, when he came back home his family asked him about the story of the movie and because he could not describe the story he drew what he had seen on paper. This was his first design and the beginning of a path that later made him one of the most famous designers in Iran and the world.
After his father’s death, he went to Tehran at the age of twelve, and received a diploma in literature and studied law at the university. He was accepted in two faculties of law and fine arts at the same time and chose law, after his graduation in law (in 1962) he landed a job in library of one of the ministries of Iran and within one year he read all books there. Then he resigned and devoted himself to design forever.
For a while, he was working in Juma’s book. When Ahmad Shamlou was the editor of book of the week, he accepted Ardeshir’s designs for printing and his name was registered as a designer with his own style. His designs were later published in books and displayed in galleries. Sirus Tahbaz published the first set of his exclusive designs in 1971 entitled Cactus in the journals of Zamaneh.
He published many books including: Ardeshir and his masks (1971), Ardeshir and the stormy weather (1972), protocols (1972), birth certificate (1972), moments (1972), Vaqaye Etefaqieh (1973), free designs (1974), Kafarnameh. (1974), preface (1974) and congratulations (1974). He drew a number of designs for the New York Times and a collection of 80 to 100 of his designs are kept in the National Library of America. In 2006, the collection of Ardeshir Mohasses’s artwork was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He spent post-revolutionary years in New York, and due to Parkinson’s disease, his movement and speech abilities were greatly reduced. Despite his illness, he continued to create cartoons and drawings to the end. Finally, Ardeshir Mohasses died at the age of 70 on Oct 9th 2008 after a long period of sickness.